WikiLeaks reward fuels speculation murdered DNC staffer behind email leak

WikiLeaks has offered a $20,000 reward for information about the murder of Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich fueling conspiracy theories that he was behind an embarassing email leak earlier this year that threatened to destabilize the party.

Rich, 27, was killed July 10 after being shot in the back twice outside his home in Washington DC in what police believe was an attempted robbery.

His death fueled speculation over social media that he may have been the whistleblower in the July 22 email scandal that saw the publication of some 20,000 correspondences between DNC staffers suggesting that the publicly neutral organization had explored ways to sabotage Bernie Sanders' campaign in favor of Hillary Clinton's during the recent primaries.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would neither confirm nor deny whether Rich had been a source for the organization, Sky News reports.

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"We treat threats towards any suspected WikiLeaks sources with extreme gravity," he said. "This should not be taken to imply that Seth Rich was a source to WikiLeaks or that his murder is connected to our publications."

"We hope our efforts will contribute to the family's calls for information and to the separate reward issued by police," he added.

But Assange seemed to implicate Rich as the whistleblower on Dutch TV program Nieuwsuur, telling the interviewer: "Whistleblowers often take very significant efforts to bring us material and often at very significant risks."

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"There's a 27-year-old who works for the DNC who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago, for unknown reasons as he was walking down the streets in Washington."

It has also been suggested that the leak, which subsequently led to the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had been a Russian effort to discredit the Democrats and help propel Trump to power.

(Staff with agencies)