Deep State Protection Of The Seth Rich Files May Be Ending

 In the predawn darkness of July 10, 2016, 27-year-old Seth Rich was shot twice in the back as he walked home in Washington, D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood. The official story from D.C. Metro Police is that this was a botched robbery. Yet the killers took nothing—no wallet, no watch, no phone. No suspects have ever been arrested, and the case remains unsolved nearly a decade later.

The timing seems too perfect to have been a random crime. Just days after Rich’s murder, WikiLeaks began releasing thousands of DNC emails that exposed the Democrat party rigging its 2016 Democrat primaries against Bernie Sanders and for Hillary Clinton.

The media blamed Russian hackers. The Mueller Report, intelligence community assessments, and CrowdStrike’s quick (but unverified) attribution pushed the foreign-interference line hard. But Julian Assange repeatedly implied that WikiLeaks’ source was not Russian—and forensic analysis suggested a local transfer, such as a thumb drive handoff, not a remote hack. Rich, the DNC’s Voter Expansion Data Director and a vocal Sanders supporter, had motive and access. Was he silenced to protect the emerging Russia collusion hoax?

This case sits at the center of what looks like a RICO-level criminal enterprise: elements of the Deep State—FBI, DOJ, CIA, and allied networks—engaged in fraud, obstruction, election subversion, and worse. I’ve argued that point in articles from 2020 onward, all built on public records, FOIA battles, declassifications, and whistleblower leaks. Fully disclosing Rich’s seized laptops, drives, and related files could blow open the entire 2016 Russia narrative, exposing ties to Benghazi arms trafficking, Clinton Foundation pay-to-play, FISA warrant abuses, Ukraine meddling, and more. Instead, the FBI has stonewalled for years. However, the Trump DOJ and FBI may finally be ending the silence.

On February 3, 2020, at NoisyRoom.net, I framed the Deep State as a de facto criminal enterprise under the RICO Act, committing treason, fraud, obstruction, and other racketeering acts in a continuing pattern (18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968).

The DNC “hack” fit the pattern: Assange denied Russian involvement and forensic analysis pointed to an insider leak, yet the FBI never inspected the DNC servers themselves, relying on CrowdStrike’s report. This misdirection fueled the Russia-Trump collusion hoax, justifying surveillance, media smears, and the Mueller probe. Under those circumstances, Rich’s potential role as a whistleblower threatened the whole house of cards.

Over the next few years, I authored a string of investigative reports, drilling down with hard evidence:

• June 3, 2022: “Who Really Killed Seth Rich?”— Reexamined the murder as the Russia hoax collapsed, highlighting Rich’s access and Sanders loyalty.
• July 12, 2022: “Use RICO to Get to the Bottom of Seth Rich’s Murder”— Proposed RICO as the tool to connect the hit to a broader conspiracy.
• September 18, 2023: “Who is Seth Rich? Who Murdered Him? And What’s The Deep State Hiding?”— Linked to Durham Report findings of FBI misconduct.
• February 2, 2024: “The FBI Again Tries to Block Seth Rich’s Laptop from Public View”— Exposed defiance in FOIA cases like Huddleston v. FBI, with exemptions claimed for “classified” or “personal” data.
• March 18, 2025: “The FBI Must Investigate Itself And, Once Cleaned, Several Other Political Crimes”— Drew parallels to Epstein, calling for systemic reform.
• August 2, 2025: “Was the Death of Seth Rich a Hit by the Deep State?”— Incorporated ODNI declassifications (under Tulsi Gabbard), Metro PD leaks from Officer Douglas Berlin, and the bombshell “Prohibited Access” files—a secret FBI repository shielding sensitive records.
• August 8, 2025: “Seth Rich: Dead Men Tell No Tales”— Framed it as a murder mystery riddled with media disinformation (e.g., Michael Isikoff-style amplification of false narratives), unproven CrowdStrike claims, and urgent calls for probes under Kash Patel and Pam Bondi.

These articles relied on verifiable sources: FOIA denials-turned-admissions, court orders ignored, intelligence lapses (no crime-scene forensics pushed, devices held since 2016, but contents suppressed). Whispers persist, and in an unsolved case, such rumors are almost inevitable. The same holds for the broader possibility of a professional or contracted operative several levels removed from any decision-maker: plausible deniability is the hallmark of these operations.

Now, however, at long last, the Trump FBI is ever so slowly giving up its secrets. Senator Chuck Grassley deserves major credit. Attorney Ty Clevenger used Grassley’s discovery of hidden FBI files to advance his FOIA suits. Matt Taibbi at Racket News just posted an exclusive update on these hidden FBI files. John Solomon of Just the News just dropped an article detailing how prohibited-access files shielded politically sensitive cases, including an intriguing quote from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. The Federalist published these bombshell articles, too (here, here, here, and here). Whistleblower tips to Grassley’s office blew the lid off. Grassley demanded that AG Bondi and Director Patel produce records; some have been turned over amid internal resistance, and Patel’s task force is now excavating decades of hidden material.

Grassley said:

If it weren’t for whistleblower disclosures to my office, the very existence of the FBI using “Prohibited Access” files for some investigations would have remained in the dark. I’ve asked Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel to turn over certain Prohibited Access records to Congress. I’ve received some but am still waiting on others. I urge the DOJ and FBI to keep digging—which previous administrations apparently didn’t make any effort to do—so that the facts can come to light. The FBI’s secret stash of records is scandalous.

I know how law enforcement record-keeping works. Over my 35 years in law enforcement, I started as a police cadet filing hard-copy reports in long rows of 4-drawer cabinets lining the wall. We used drum files of index cards sorted by name to locate report numbers, then pulled the physical file. Records clerks handled merging the cards during filing. The digital Records Management System (RMS) eliminated the drum file, but we still worked with hard copies. Old cases were microfilmed or purged; DIRS digital scanning arrived in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Investigative units, especially homicide, kept their own hard copies of police reports indefinitely, and they were never locked away (murders and officer-involved shootings, and the like). The FBI’s top-brass-only restriction is deliberate concealment, not oversight. Scandalous doesn’t cover it. Reporting from Just the News shows these “prohibited access” files have been a go-to method for burying records in politically charged investigations for years—exactly the kind of tool that could explain the ongoing stonewalling in cases like Rich’s.

In Rich’s case, Attorney Clevenger has repeatedly exposed the FBI’s contradictions: first denying any records existed, then admitting they held Rich’s laptops, a DVD, a thumb drive, and thousands of pages—yet continuing to withhold them under the excuse of an “ongoing investigation.” Following Judge Amos Mazzant’s August 24, 2024, ruling ordering full production, the FBI was required to comply by March 10, 2025—but the bureau only delivered a Vaughn index—that is, a list of withheld documents—not the documents themselves (see my March 2025 American Thinker piece on the FBI’s defiance).

This strongly suggests the withheld information may contain exculpatory evidence of a domestic leak, which would dismantle the Russia-hack narrative. Shades of the Hunter Biden laptop—branded “Russian disinformation” by 51 former intel officials and suppressed across media and social platforms before the 2020 election. Clevenger tells me more developments could emerge soon. Nearly ten years later, there are still no arrests, no real progress—only obstruction.

With Trump’s election, Patel and Bondi are now in charge of the DOJ and FBI, and the moment is here. The old CYA days are over—the winds have shifted—but the files are still sealed, plausibly to keep the lower ranks and conspirators unsuspecting while the real work happens. Dragging this out much longer risks losing ground politically before the midterms. Will the truth come out, or will caution become the enemy? The American people have waited long enough—no more delays.

Ron Wright is a retired detective who served 35 years with Riverside PD, Calif. Ron earned a B.A. in political science from Cal State University, Fullerton, and a Master of Administration from the University of California, Riverside. X @RonTcop

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/03/deep_state_protection_of_the_seth_rich_files_may_be_ending.html