Without a doubt, Texas businessman Ed Butowsky has been front and center in the Seth Rich saga.
According to Ed, he learned about a link between the alleged DNC leak of emails to Wikileaks by his former friend and business partner Ellen Ratner in the fall of 2016.
Ed agreed to contact the parents of Seth Rich as a favor to Ellen.
In 2017, Ed received a phone call from Pulitzer prize winning journalist Sy Hersh (which he secretly recorded). During the call, Sy spoke about having a friend of 30 years whom he trusted. That friend had access to view an FBI file that linked Seth Rich to Wikileaks. Sy went into great detail explaining all of this to Ed.
It might be a coincidence but the person who asked Sy to call Ed, Larry Johnson, is a 30 year friend of Sy Hersh. Larry is also a member of VIPS and is friends with Bill Binney who is well-known for questioning the Russian narrative of the DNC leak.
The following is a Washingtonian story that talks about the friendship between Sy and Larry. https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/10/08/why-isnt-sy-hersh-covering-president-trump/
Sy tried to backtrack all of his statements several years later in a deposition.
Ed also had contact with a member of Congress or one of his aides who saw a classified document in a very secure setting that tied Seth to Wikileaks. This revelation was brought to light in a December 2020 court filing.
Ed also received Seth Rich information from a detective that was recommended to him, Rod Wheeler. Ed paid for Rod’s services as a favor to Seth’s parents. Rod alternated from claiming he had information linking Seth to Wikileaks to saying he didn’t.
Rod later sued Ed. That lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
Ed also had contact with internet journalist, Matt Couch, and his team of investigators.
Matt’s team may have had a few solid sources but many of Matt’s Tweets and videos centered on accusations against Seth’s brother Aaron without offering any substantial evidence. This eventually led to lawsuits where Ed and Matt eventually were forced to settled and apologize.
Ed’s misfortunes (as of this date) seem to be tied to potential witnesses backing down or judges rulings that prevent blockbuster evidence from being revealed.
Over the years, Ed has put out various breadcrumbs in interviews and court filings that teased the fact that he had sources who provided him with hard evidence linking Seth to Wikileaks. Here are some of those items.
1) In a court filing, Ed stated the following … On or about November 14 2018, I was allowed to listen to a phone conversation between Julian Assange and a third party. During that conversation, Mr. Assange discussed how Seth Rich and Aaron Rich had transferred emails to Wikileaks and received payment in return.
This is a startling statement to make in a court filing. I have not seen any additional follow-ups in any subsequent court documents. It’s likely the person who provided Ed with the opportunity to listen to the recording would not testify to its existence.
Julian did have phone privileges up until March 2018. Here is an article discussing when he lost his privileges. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hayesbrown/julian-assange-just-got-his-internet-privileges-revoked
Assuming the recording was real, it would seem reasonable to assume that the NSA or the 5 Eyes intelligence services would have access to it as well.
Again, assuming the conversation actually happened, it would mean someone recorded a conversation with Assange, held on to the recording for an extended period of time, and that person later had contact with Ed.
Julian would be very careful to discuss such sensitive information. He would only do that with someone he trusted not to repeat it or if he wanted that person to share it with Ed.
2) Ed provided very specific details of payments allegedly made to Seth on a YouTube video. He claimed the date was 6/23/2016 and the amount was $48,115. In the following video at approximately the 13 minute mark, Ed tells the interviewer what he believes happened. https://youtu.be/c_g59wv42xA
This was I believe the only time, Ed was this specific on an interview concerning an alleged payment. I did not see it mentioned in any court filings. This is likely another example of Ed receiving information from a source who later refused to cooperate either out of fear or because the person would be concerned with being charged with revealing classified material.
If the information is true, it would almost certainly have been known to intelligence agencies investigating the DNC hack and Mueller’s team.
3) The $56 Western Digital hard drive.
During an interview with Cassandra Fairbanks of the GatewayPundit, Ed insinuated that Seth used a $56 Western Digital hard drive as part of his plan to extract the DNC emails.
Once again, I have not seen any further mention of this in court filings. It should be mentioned that certain evidence has been suppressed by judges in various cases. A recent example is the Aaron Rich case which Fox News , Ed Butowsky, and Matt Couch settled. A significant document must be destroyed or returned according to Ty Clevenger. Here is a link to that story.
So, it is possible that some of Ed’s breadcrumbs have made it into court proceedings.
To summarize, either Ed is making up evidence, he was purposely mislead, or people with high level security clearance have sought him out because they see Ed as an avenue to have the truth revealed.
Unfortunately, opposition attorney’s and judges may look at that evidence as inadmissible.
There may come a day where one of these whistleblowers have the courage to come forward with their evidence.
Or, they admit they mislead Ed which is also a possibility, albeit a slim chance.
4) December 2020 Declaration
As part of a FOIA case, Ed made the following declaration… I have a number of friends who work in or have previously worked in various
intelligence positions for the United States government. On or about April 28,
2017, I spoke with a friend who at that time worked in a high-level intelligence
position for the executive branch. My friend told me he had personally viewed
records that were downloaded from Seth Rich’s electronic devices by the FBI’s
Computer Analysis and Response Team (“CART”). I have not revealed his name
because he revealed the foregoing information in confidence.
Ed doesn’t go into details as to what his friend saw but it does indicate once again that the FBI was very interested in a ‘botched street robbery ‘. It’s likely the executive branch person was connected to the House Intelligence committee. But, that is just speculation. Interestingly, it was revealed in April 2021 that Kash Patel is being investigated by the Biden DOJ for leaking information related to the Russia probe.
Here is an article discussing Kash. https://amp.dailycaller.com/2021/04/16/kash-patel-fisa-russia-investigation?__twitter_impression=true
Devin Nunes is said to be good friends with Ed Butowsky in the Rod Wheeler deposition taken in November 2019.
Emails revealed in the Rod Wheeler deposition talk about those pursuing the Seth Rich case wanting to put pressure on Devin Nunes making it seem like he could provide helpful information.
Disclaimer: I have no inside knowledge on whether Seth Rich or anyone in his family was involved in the leak of the DNC emails. My analysis is based on various YouTube videos, social media posts, court cases, and other published articles.
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