Viswa Vanapalli
In July 2016, Seth Rich, a 27-year-old working for the Democratic National Committee, was killed in the Bloomingdale neighborhood. Following his death, several conspiracy theories came up, trying to explain why Seth Rich was murdered. While that continued, Seth’s family was approached by Jack Burkman, a Republican lobbyist, who initially seemed to want to help find out what happened.
However, as it would turn out, that didn’t appear to be the case. The second episode on Netflix’s ‘Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies and the Internet’ titled ‘A Murder in D.C.,’ focuses on the case and Jack’s involvement. So, let’s find out where Jack Burkman might be today, shall we?
Who is Jack Burkman?
Seth Rich was murdered on July 10, 2016, with the investigators believing it was a robbery gone wrong. Jack, a lobbyist for the Republicans, then put up $130,000 of his own money as a reward for any information in Seth’s murder. At the time, he said that he was empathetic toward what the family was going through, with Seth’s name being dragged into several conspiracy theories.
However, that changed the following year. Jack claimed that he uncovered evidence that proved the Russians killed Seth because he found out about their involvement in the DNC email leaks. Jack further contended that he heard this information from someone claiming to be a former US intelligence officer and went as far as to say that the botched robbery wasn’t a credible theory. Seth’s family then began to distance themselves from Jack.
There have been several reports regarding Jack being a known conspiracy theorist. He was also in the news in February 2014 when he protested against the Dallas Cowboys for signing an openly gay player onto their practice squad. Furthermore, Jack and Jacob Wohl, another conservative and a Trump supporter, were reported to have possibly been involved in a plot to bring up fake sexual misconduct allegations against Robert Mueller, the former FBI director.
In October 2020, an email from someone named Lorraine mentioned that she was offered money to accuse Robert of sexual misconduct. The email stated that the person who offered the cash worked for Jack. However, Lorraine’s identity was not verified. Apart from that, Jack accused Supreme Court Justice John Roberts of drug abuse but provided no substantiating evidence. He also tried to drum up phony sexual harassment allegations against senator Elizabeth Warren.
Back to Jack’s involvement with Seth’s case, he hired Kevin Doherty, a former Marine, to work on a psychological profile of Seth’s killer. But they had several disagreements, leading to Jack firing Kevin in July 2017. Kevin then began to email Jack and claimed to have information “detrimental to the FBI.” In March 2018, Kevin lured Jack to a parking lot garage under the pretext of delivering documents. However, he shot Jack twice before running him over and fleeing the scene.
Where is Jack Burkman Now?
Jack Burkman was in hot water yet again during the 2020 presidential elections when he and Jacob were accused of making thousands of robocalls across several states to discourage the minority population from voting by mail. These calls falsely claimed that information received when they vote by mail could be used to look up old warrants, collect debts, or track them.
In August 2021, the Federal Communications Commission pushed for a $5.1 million fine against Jack and others for the robocalling. According to a 2020 report, Jack lives in Arlington, Virginia, and is the host of a conservative radio show called ‘Behind the Curtain with Jack Burkman.’ Before that, he worked as a news analyst for Fox News.
Read More: How Did Seth Rich Die?
