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Wikileaks offering reward following murder of possible DNC informant

Wikileaks offering reward following murder of possible DNC informant
Posted at 4:22 PM, Aug 10, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-10 16:22:06-04

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange suggested on Dutch television on Tuesday that the murder of a DNC staffer did not stem from a robbery like authorities claim. 

Assange is offering a $20,000 reward on information leading to an arrest involving the murder of 27-year-old Seth Rich. 

According to local media reports, Rich was shot and killed on July 10 as he was walking home in the early morning hours. Police considered the homicide as part of a robbery attempt, although there were no witnesses. 

Less than two weeks after Rich was killed, internal Democratic Party emails were distributed from Wikileaks. The emails showed a bias against Hillary Clinton's chief rival for the party's presidential nomination Bernie Sanders. 

The leaked emails forced DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign from her post. 

While Assange would not confirm whether Rich was a Wikileaks source, he did hint there was more to his murder than an ordinary robbery. 

"Whistleblowers often take very significant efforts to bring us material and often at very significant risks," Assange said on Nieuwsuu r"There is no finding (it was a robbery)... Our sources take risks."

"We have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States, and our sources take significant risks, that is why they come to us so we can protect their anonymity," Assange added. 

Justin Boggs is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @jjboggs or on Facebook.