Newt Gingrich repeats Seth Rich conspiracy theory in Fox appearance

Trump confidante and husband of ambassadorial nominee repeats WikiLeaks theory denounced as ‘fake news’ by family of murdered DNC staffer

A prominent ally of Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that the special counsel appointed to investigate alleged links between the president’s aides and Russia should instead focus on the murder last year of a young Democratic staffer, Seth Rich, which has become the focus of conspiracy theorists.

In an appearance on Fox and Friends less than two days after his wife was proposed as ambassador to the Holy See, Newt Gingrich – former speaker of the House, 2012 presidential candidate and a Trump confidante – publicly endorsed the conspiracy theory that Rich was “assassinated” after giving Democratic National Committee emails to WikiLeaks.

Rich, 27, was shot dead in the early hours of 10 July 2016, as he walked home in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington. In August, the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, insinuated that Rich had been a source. Police initially explored whether Rich’s murder might be connected to robberies in the area, according to a local news report, and officials in the capital have publicly debunked other claims.

“This is a robbery that ended tragically,” Kevin Donahue, Washington’s deputy mayor for public safety, told NBC News this week. “That’s bad enough for our city, and I think it is irresponsible to conflate this into something that doesn’t connect to anything that the detectives have found. No WikiLeaks connection.”

On Sunday, the Washington DC police public affairs office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

In January, American intelligence agencies concluded with “high confidence” in a public report that Russian military intelligence was responsible for hacking the DNC and obtaining and relaying private messages to WikiLeaks, which made a series of embarrassing public disclosures. The goal, the agencies concluded, was to undermine the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and boost Trump, as well as hurt Americans’ trust in their own democracy.

This week, the Russian embassy in the UK shared the conspiracy on Twitter, CNN reported, calling Rich a murdered “WikiLeaks informer” and claiming that the British mainstream media was “so busy accusing Russian hackers to take notice”.

The Rich family has repeatedly denied that there is any evidence behind the conspiracy theories and called on Fox News to retract its coverage of their son’s murder. Earlier this week, a spokesman for the family said in a statement that “anyone who continues to push this fake news story after it was so thoroughly debunked is proving to the world they have a transparent political agenda or are a sociopath”.

On Fox and Friends, Gingrich said: “We have this very strange story here of this young man who worked for the DNC who was apparently assassinated at four in the morning having given WikiLeaks something like 23,000 – I’m sorry, 53,000 – emails and 17,000 attachments.

“Nobody’s investigating that, and what does that tell you about what was going on? Because it turns out it wasn’t the Russians, it was this young guy who, I suspect, who was disgusted by the corruption of the Democratic National Committee.

“He’s been killed, and apparently nothing serious has been done to investigate his murder. So, I’d like to see how [former FBI director Robert] Mueller is going to define what his assignment is, and if it’s only narrowly Trump, the country will not learn what it needs to learn about foreign involvement in American politics.”

Last week, the private investigator and Fox News commentator Rod Wheeler claimed that evidence existed that Rich had been in contact with WikiLeaks. Questioned by CNN, however, he said: “I only got that [information] from the reporter at Fox News” and added that he did not have any evidence himself.

“Using the legacy of a murder victim in such an overtly political way is morally reprehensible,” a Rich family spokesman told CNN.

The Rich family has sent Wheeler a cease-and-desist letter, threatening legal action if he continues to discuss the case, the Washington Post reported.