Trump, who has repeatedly endorsed conspiracy theories ranging from the death of Vince Foster to Hillary Clinton’s health to Barack Obama’s birth certificate, has offered at least 197 different arguments about Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, including several which touch on fringe conspiracy theories. Has Trump endorsed these conspiracy theories before? “What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? ” he said. Trump has referenced Awan on Twitter before, calling him a “Pakistani mystery man” and arguing that he is key to “much of the corruption we see today.”ĭuring the press conference with Putin, he again referenced Awan. The Washington Post reported that, according to investigators, these activities were innocuous - like “storing personal information such as children’s homework and family photos.” The Inspector General’s Office of the House had found that Awan, along with four other IT staffers, accessed congressional computers without authorization. In March, they filed a lawsuit accusing Fox News and two contributors of intentionally exploiting the tragedy “through lies, misrepresentations, and half-truths.”Īnother conspiracy theory that has been floated by Fox News personalities Geraldo Rivera and Sean Hannity involves Awan, a former Democratic staffer who was investigated for violating House security rules. “He didn’t have access to DNC emails, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee emails, John Podesta’s emails or Hillary Clinton’s emails,” they wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post. Rich’s family has spoken out about the conspiracy theories, noting that he could not have been the leaker. After his death, he became the focus of theories prominently featured - and in one case, retracted - on Fox News that he leaked the emails. Rich was a 27-year-old DNC staffer who was shot and killed in the summer of 2016 in what police believe was a botched robbery.
How does this tie into other conspiracy theories about the hacking?Ĭonspiracy theorists have seized on two people they claim could have been involved in a supposed inside job to leak the emails: Seth Rich and Imran Awan. The theories differ on exactly who this person is supposed to be. Instead, conspiracists have argued that the DNC was not hacked at all, and that the emails published on WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign were from disgruntled staffers who leaked them. Some doubters of Russian involvement in the hacking have argued that the fact that the FBI did not take possession of the DNC servers during its investigation means it can’t be proven that Russia was involved.
What is the conspiracy theory about the DNC server? Robert Johnston - an employee of Crowdstrike, the private firm that examined the DNC’s servers - told BuzzFeed that the DNC was hoping to handle investigations less publicly amid a presidential campaign and an FBI investigation into Clinton’s emails. The DNC’s deputy communications director, Eric Walker, wrote to BuzzFeed in an email that “the FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers.”
However, the DNC denied that the FBI ever asked. He said that the bureau made “multiple requests at different levels,” but ultimately struck an agreement that a “highly respected private company” would get access to the materials and share its findings with investigators. Former FBI Director James Comey told Congress that the DNC declined to provide such access. What actually happened to the Democratic National Committee server?ĭuring the FBI’s investigation of the hacking of the DNC, it did not take possession of the DNC’s internal servers. Here’s how the server ties into the conspiracy theory.
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