Assange has been a thorn in the side of Democrats this entire election cycle and has personally helped spread some conspiracy theories around Clinton. Back in the summer, young DNC staffer Seth Rich was killed in Washington, D.C., in what police called a robbery attempt gone wrong. But there were some who claimed that Rich was killed either by the DNC or Clinton because of some secret he may have threatened to release.
Despite scant evidence to support the theory — and statements from Rich’s family asking that people stop spreading the baseless rumors — Assange jumped on the story. WikiLeaks offered a $20,000 reward for information abut Rich’s murderer, and Assange himself insinuated that Rich may have been the source of the DNC leak.
The Gateway Pundit had a transcript of Assange’s appearance on a Dutch television show in which he hinted about it.
Julian Assange: Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks. As a 27 year-old, works for the DNC, was shot in the back, murdered just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington.
Reporter: That was just a robbery, I believe. Wasn’t it?
Julian Assange: No. There’s no finding. So… I’m suggesting that our sources take risks.
A later report from a site called True Pundit claimed that Hillary Clinton wanted to order a drone strike against Julian Assange back in 2010, when WikiLeaks had released hundreds of thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables. The report has been called into question and there appears to be no evidence to support the account of Clinton trying to assassinate Assange.
Despite WikiLeaks posting on Twitter after the release of the so-called “dead man’s switch,” the rumors that Julian Assange may be dead have persisted online. Many people are still openly questioning his fate and calling on Assange to make a statement directly.