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Report On Murder Of DNC Staffer Seth Rich Speculates ‘Hired Killer’ May Have Done It

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Justin Caruso Contributor
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A new report from a group led by Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman claims that Democratic staffer Seth Rich was likely killed by either “a hired killer or serial murderer.”

The group is called the Profiling Project, and it is reportedly staffed with George Washington University graduate students who are studying forensic psychology. It’s funded by Burkman, who has offered a $105,000 reward for solving Rich’s murder.

Rich, a 27-year-old Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer at the time of his murder in July 2016 in Washington, D.C. was the victim of a botched attempted robbery, police have said.

The Profiling Project report released Tuesday claims that “Seth’s death does not appear to be a random homicide” or a “robbery gone bad,” though it provides no evidence that the killer was hired by someone.

The group, however, received “no special access to any materials, evidence or persons and due to case sensitivity, conducted only informal, limited interviews. The bulk of our report is based on statistics, prior research and Logos.”

Embedded PDF of the report, from WJLA-TV:

The Profiling Project Seth Rich Report by WJLA-TV on Scribd

Kevin Doherty, a member of the group that put together the report, said that “the fact that this person has gotten away with it shows a level of proficiency.”

“The crime scene was very organized to the point of being sanitized,” the report wrote. “This would indicate careful planning on the part of the offender, control of the entry to and exit from the crime scene as well as in-depth understanding of law-enforcement investigative processes.”

A variety of conservative commentators have speculated that Rich’s death may have been more nefarious than simply a botched robbery. Sean Hannity urged an investigation, which led to a campaign to take down his advertisers.

“With such a sanitized crime scene and no emotional indications, this is not Offenders [sic] first kill,” according to the report, leading the group to claim that the killer would be “by the FBI definition, a serial killer.”

Brad Bauman, a spokesperson for the Rich family, told The Daily Caller in an email, “The Rich family was not provided a copy of the preliminary report, never saw the report or was otherwise consulted in the preparation of the report.”

“I received the report a half an hour before it was made public thus depriving myself, the family or the families lawyers any reasonable time review it. As noted, by the report’s own methodology, ‘The profiling project was given no special access to any materials, evidence or persons and due to case sensitivity, conducted only informal, limited interviews.'”

“Given that fact, the family hopes that the general public takes the findings at face value– valuable experience in research collection and report writing for students at George Washington University but in no way should take any findings contained within as new, credible or otherwise lending credence to conspiracy theories surrounding the circumstances of Seth’s death,” he continued.

“We further hope that this doesn’t continue to impede the Metropolitan Police Department’s ability to find the killers and give folks who might have information leading to their arrest cover to stay silent.”

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