Fox’s Newt Gingrich refuses to walk back claim that murdered DNC staffer was responsible for DNC email hacks even after 12 Russians were indicted

CNN’s Oliver Darcy: When asked to apologize for “peddling the conspiracy theory that Rich was killed for supposedly leaking the DNC docs to Wikileaks,” Gingrich said “No. Goodbye!” before hanging up

Written by Media Matters Staff

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CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted “In light of the Mueller indictments, I called @newtgingrich to see if he would like to apologize to the Seth Rich family for peddling the conspiracy theory that Rich was killed for supposedly leaking the DNC docs to Wikileaks. “No. Goodbye!” Gingrich told me before hanging up.”

 

In light of the Mueller indictments, I called @newtgingrich to see if he would like to apologize to the Seth Rich family for peddling the conspiracy theory that Rich was killed for supposedly leaking the DNC docs to Wikileaks.



“No. Goodbye!” Gingrich told me before hanging up. https://t.co/hhy10ru7MN

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 13, 2018



Gingrich had previously claimed Seth Rich was “assassinated at 4 in the morning, having given WikiLeaks something like 23,000 -- I’m sorry, 53,000 emails and 17,000 attachments,” joining Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Lou Dobbs in smearing a dead DNC staffer with conspiratorial claims. On the day the Justice Department announced indictments of 12 Russians connected to a “sustained effort” to hack Democratic emails during the 2016 election, Darcy contacted Gingrich to ask if he would apologize for spreading the conspiracy theory. Gingrich refused.



Darcy and many others have previously noted there is “zero evidence” to support conspiracy theories regarding the death of Seth Rich, and Gingrich’s refusal to disavow his prior statements come months after the Rich family’s previous demand that Fox News apologize for its role in spreading the conspiracy.