The next branch of the disproven Internet conspiracy theory that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was assassinated involves the doctor currently treating Republican Rep. Steve Scalise for his gunshot wound suffered last week.
Dr. Jack Sava of MedStar Hospital in downtown Washington D.C. today issued an update on Scalise’s condition, after Scalise was shot during a congressional baseball game practice. Conspiracy theorists have latched onto the doctor, believing him to be the person who treated Rich after the former DNC staffer was shot several times in July in what police think was a botched robbery.
Rich died at the hospital where he was treated, but which hospital it was exactly isn’t known. And conspiracy theorists are speculating it was MedStar.
The logic, such as it is, goes that Sava treated Rich and must have helped kill him in order to silence the DNC staffer, who reportedly wanted to leak all kinds of damaging information about the Democrats. Driven mostly by Fox News and its host Sean Hannity, a report (also on Fox) circulated last month saying that Rich had provided DNC documents to WikiLeaks. That turned out to be false and Fox retracted the story, but the narrative that Rich knew too much about corrupt democrats and was killed for it still hasn’t gone away.
The Sava angle is picking up steam with conspiracy theorists because the doctor supposedly has ties to Hillary Clinton, her campaign manager John Podesta, and the Obama White House. That information, theorists say, comes from DNC email leaks published by WikiLeaks. One of them shows Sava’s name on a campaign event guest list.
The information tying Sava to Rich is strained at best and requires a few speculative leaps: first and foremost, that Rich ever wound up at Sava’s hospital at all, and that Sava was involved in treating him. It certainly hasn’t been reported as some are saying. But that hasn’t stopped some on Twitter from running with the idea. They’re suggesting that if Sava was involved with Rich’s death, Scalise isn’t safe either.
https://twitter.com/SeaDimon/status/875800736294162433
https://twitter.com/frangiaq/status/875796833137827843
@MedStarWHC Dr. Jack Sava is the same doctor that facilitated the #sethrich hospital murder – Also the same spokesmen for @SteveScalise pic.twitter.com/4zdhyCg9s4
— Cheerios (@Mrs2A41A) June 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/eggrage87/status/875820363913056256
https://twitter.com/FITE4THEUSERS/status/875806930400231424
https://twitter.com/ChrisMillsBW/status/875831765046145024
It seems the Seth Rich cover-up theory just won’t die, even though Hannity apologized in May for continuing to push the story. The host backed off the narrative after Rich’s family repeatedly asked him to stop pushing the idea of a conspiracy, and Hannity lost advertisers for ignoring them.
But that apparently isn’t enough to stop the Internet sleuths on Reddit, 4chan and Twitter, who won’t be convinced Rich murder is anything other than a cover-up.