By Susan Duclos - All News PipeLine
The "selectively edited" supposed bombshell report by the Atlantic about Donald Trump Jr.'s responses to Wikileaks, has spawned what could potentially become a viral Seth Rich connection, yet the entire thing is a carefully crafted hoax, most likely put into place in order to discredit Independent Media that have been following and documenting the murder of the DNC staffer just days before Wikileaks started publishing the DNC and Podesta emails that roiled the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC itself.
Immediately after the Atlantic published their selectively edited transcripts of those direct messages, Don Jr. posted the entire chain to his Twitter account, showing that while Wikileaks often messaged him, his responses to them include a total of three "whopping" responses as he snarkily wrote on Twitter.
WIKILEAKS/DONALD TRUMP JR. MESSAGES
Back in September 2016 Wikileaks sent a direct message (DM) to Donald Trump Jr. warning him of an anti-Trump PAC run website, asking him for a comment, to which Don Jr. responded "Off the record I don't know who that is but I'll ask around. Thanks."True to his word, Don Jr. emailed word of it to Trump campaign officials Steven Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale and Jared Kushner, who in turn forwarded it over to communications staffer Hope Hicks.
The second message sent to Don Jr. was a story of Clinton asking if they couldn't just "drone" Julian Assange, saying it would "be great if you guys could comment on/push this story," to which Don. Jr. responded "Already did that earlier today. It is amazing what she can get away with."
The last message Don Jr. send to Wikileaks was two minutes later, asking "What is behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about," to which they did not respond, which is very telling as it puts yet another nail in the coffin of the "Russia collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia via the leaked Wikileaks publications, because had they been "colluding" Don Jr. would have already known what the leaks were going to be.
Wikileaks sent more messages, but none of them received responses..... and that is what dozens of outlets are reporting about as if it were some huge revelation, dominating headlines across the internet, with the Atlantic even claiming in their initial report that Don Jr. asking Wikileaks what is behind the teases of an upcoming event, was "a second instance in which Trump Jr. appears eager to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton, despite its provenance."
Donald Trump Jr. released the chain in three separate tweets found here, here and here.
'MY NAME WAS SETH' WEBSITE HOAX
In his first tweet publishing the email chain from the DMs, there was an active link provided with the suggestion that if his dad talks about Wikileaks, he should tweet the link, saying all their followers could dig through it and find many great stories that the press are missing.
That link, seen above with an underline, wlsearch.tk, now leads to a page titled "MY NAME WAS SETH RICH" which states the following:
You finally found me! I'm the source of the John Podesta/DNC Email hacks. I've been waiting so long for you to join me.
Thanks to Wikileaks and Trump Jr you'll all soon know why Hillary Clinton and John Podesta had me killed.
As you can see I'm no Russian agent. I was just a proud DNC staffer who believed in the system until I found out Hillary Clinton and the DNC rigged the primaries against my candidate Bernie Sanders. That's when I decided to take action and release these emails to Wikileaks.
John Podesta was determined to make an example out of me and had me taken care of. Why did you think they didn't let the FBI examine the DNC servers? Yep, those servers would have lead them straight to me. John couldn't let that happen.
BTW, did you know that John Podesta is a Pedophile? Just ask him about Pizzagate next time you see him for me. Thanks.
Thanks again Wikileaks for upping my reward to solve my murder. I wonder why you'd do that for me? Oh, you are trying to tell the world I was your source. Whoops cat's outta the bag now.
That message was followed up with a picture of the murdered DNC staffer, which Julian Assange had previously suggested was a "whistleblower" in an interview while discussing the great risks that whistleblowers face, using Rich as an example.
"Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often significant risks. There was a 27-year old that works for the DNC who was shot in the back… murdered.. for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington," Assange asserted in an interview with Dutch TV, on the same day Wikileaks offered a 20K reward for information leading to the arrest in the death of Rich. When asked by the host if he was suggesting that Rich was involved, Assange said they do not reveal the names of their sources, and "we have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States and that our sources face serious risks… that’s why they come to us so we can protect their anonymity."
That link and the webpage "MY NAME WAS SETH RICH" has already spawned headlines from Independent Media, like "WikiLeaks Appears to Confirm Seth Rich Was the Leaker in Messages to Don Jr.," and others tweeting things like "BREAKING: Wiki sent Don Jr a link that currently claims Seth Rich was their leaker, John Podesta had him murdered & Podesta is a pedo."
Note- We are not naming the websites nor linking to the tweet or the stories because we are all human and we all have at one point or another fallen for a hoax, so there is no point in naming and shaming, for an innocent mistake.
The site is hosted in the Netherlands according to the domain registration, it does lead to the page quoted above and linked above..... but a look back through the history of the URL, shows that as of September 22, 2017, the link brought users directly to the Wikileaks Podesta email release on their website and had done so since at least late September.
Some time between September 22, 2017 and October 18, 2017, the URL started being redirected to a "FREENOM" domain, which just happens to be what is listed on the domain information for http://wlsearch.tk/, which now brings us to the "MY NAME WAS SETH RICH" webpage.
Redirect screen shot from Wayback Machine, saved October 18, 2017, below.
Domain information screen shot taken on November 14, 2017, below.
According to Wayback Machine, that link has been saved 59 times between October 12, 2016 and November 14, 2017. The archived page saved on September 22, 2017, led back to Wikileaks, but by October 18, through November 8, 2017, the saved link was being redirected to a FREENOM domain default, but that changed on November 14, 2017, less than a day after after Donald Trump Jr. published the full DM message chain between himself and Wikileaks, and now it leads to the Seth Rich page.
WHO IS BEHUND THE HOAX SITE?
Because these were private messages between Donald Trump Jr. and Wikileaks, they were not public knowledge, but according to Don Jr.'s attorney, they had turned them over to Congress along with other information over the past months, and did not become public knowledge until someone in the halls of Congress leaked them to the Atlantic, and then Don Jr. published them for all to see on Twitter on November 13, 2017.
We know the link was still going straight to the Wikileaks Podesta emails until September 22, 2017, and that Congress was still waiting for Don Jr.'s documents in early September, meaning the link did not start redirecting to the FREENOM domain until around the time those documents were turned over to Congress.
Quite the coincidence that the link to the Wikileaks Podesta emails started redirecting at the same time as Congress was receiving the documents, including his messages with Wikileaks, to the exact same domain servers that are now hosting a page about the Seth Rich leaks to Wikileaks and his murder.
BOTTOM LINE - THE 'WHY' IS EASY TO FIGURE OUT
Look at the wording of the site's assertion, everything from Pizzagate to John Podesta being a pedophile, to the assertion that Seth Rich was the leaker, meaning Russia had nothing to do with the DNC.Podesta emails released by Wikileaks.
The question of why would someone with access in Congress to the Don Jr. douments, including that specific link in the DMs, would create such an elaborate hoax, is simple to answer.
It is a direct attempt to discredit Independent Media that has been detailing the timing of Rich's murder in connection with the Wikileaks DNC/Podesta files, the studies finding the "official" narrative of a botched robbery being behind the two bullets in his back, the clear suggestion by Juliane Assange that Rich was a whistleblower, the reward by Wikileaks for information on Rich's murder, by getting them to fall for, and report, on a hoax site as if it was real.
The question of why this hoax site would come out now, is also easy to answer: Donna Brazile has put the spotlight back on Seth Rich, dedicating her book to him and others, openly speaking about him in interviews, and those that want everyone to think any questions about Rich are just "conspiracies" think it would bolster that outcome if they can get Independent Media to fall for a Seth Rich hoax.