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Peter W. Smith, GOP Operative who sought Clinton emails, commits suicide

D

Daria

Member
Chicago Tribune said:
A Republican donor and operative from Chicago's North Shore who said he had tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself in a Minnesota hotel room days after talking to The Wall Street Journal about his efforts, public records show.

In a room at a Rochester hotel used almost exclusively by Mayo Clinic patients and relatives, Peter W. Smith, 81, left a carefully prepared file of documents, which includes a statement police called a suicide note in which he said he was in ill health and a life insurance policy was expiring.

Days earlier, the financier from suburban Lake Forest gave an interview to the Journal about his quest, and it published stories about his efforts beginning in late June. The Journal also reported it had seen emails written by Smith showing his team considered retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then a top adviser to Republican Donald Trump's campaign, as an ally. Flynn briefly was President Trump's national security adviser and resigned after it was determined he had failed to disclose contacts with Russia.

At the time, the newspaper reported Smith's May 14 death came about 10 days after he granted the interview. Mystery shrouded how and where he had died, but the lead reporter on the stories said on a podcast he had no reason to believe the death was the result of foul play and that Smith likely had died of natural causes.

However, the Chicago Tribune obtained a Minnesota state death record filed in Olmsted County that says Smith committed suicide in a hotel near the Mayo Clinic at 1:17 p.m. on Sunday, May 14. He was found with a bag over his head with a source of helium attached. A medical examiner's report gives the same account, without specifying the time, and a report from Rochester police further details his suicide.

In the note recovered by police, Smith apologized to authorities and said that "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER" was involved in his death. He wrote that he was taking his own life because of a "RECENT BAD TURN IN HEALTH SINCE JANUARY, 2017" and timing related "TO LIFE INSURANCE OF $5 MILLION EXPIRING."

One of Smith's former employees told the Tribune he thought the elderly man had gone to the famed clinic to be treated for a heart condition. Mayo spokeswoman Ginger Plumbo said Thursday she could not confirm Smith had been a patient, citing medical privacy laws.
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Smith told the Journal he believed the missing emails might have had been obtained by Russian hackers. He also said he thought the correspondence related to Clinton's official duties. He told the Journal he worked independently and was not part of the Trump campaign. He also told the Journal he and his team found five groups of hackers — two of them Russian groups — who claimed to have Clinton's missing emails.
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people connected to Russia seem to be dying at an alarming rate. more at the link
 
G

Guy.brush

Member
tumblr_o6wwi1zebh1rfd7lko1_500.gif
 
J

Jackpot

Banned
Daria said:
people connected to Russia seem to be dying at an alarming rate.
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Even if in jest, we do not need our own Seth Rich conspiracy. The article is very detailed about the suicide and it seems to be completely unrelated to his dirt-digging and instead centred on his ill-health.
 
F

Foffy

Banned
Will the alt-right Trumpeteers assume this is another Seth Rich conspiracy to hide the truth via death?

I know it states the reasons in the OP, but that didn't stop them with Seth Rich. :/
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
I thought life insurance wasn't paid out if you commit suicide? Was part of his plan for this to make sure someone still got part of that before he passed and it lapsed?

I really don't know much about him or his story with GOP. RIP though.
Quivering Quim said:
Depends on the policy and the company I think.
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Ah. Never mind then.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
ArkhamFantasy said:
Uhhh, wouldnt suicide void a life insurance policy?
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Yeah lol. Pretty sure that's standard. And him explicitly stating he's killing himself to ensure it doesn't expire makes it that much easier for an insurance company to deny a claim.

Edit: I see, fair enough. But I'm sure they might try to fight it given the explicit reasoning for the suicide in part.
 
S

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Shauni said:
No, some life insurance policies have an expiration period for suicide. If he had this policy for awhile, the clause was probably expired
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Uh, they have a what?

That seems to me to encourage suicide.
 
S

Shauni

Member
GoldenEye 007 said:
Yeah lol. Pretty sure that's standard. And him explicitly stating he's killing himself to ensure it doesn't expire makes it that much easier for an insurance company to deny a claim.

Edit: I see, fair enough. But I'm sure they might try to fight it given the explicit reasoning for the suicide in part.
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I mean, they can't fight it really, it's basically like a contract.
 
D

Dhx

Member
Suicide clause is limited. It usually is about 2 years from when the policy takes effect. At 81, it probably expired long ago.
 
S

skullmuffins

Banned
Suikoguy said:
Uh, they have a what?

That seems to me to encourages suicide.
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They'll have a clause that says they won't pay out in cases of suicide for, say, 5 years after you first get the policy. If you have had the policy for 20 years and then commit suicide, you're covered.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
For those who didn't follow this story too closely keep in mind that the big Wall Street Journal story about him digging for dirt wasn't some kind of regretful deathbed confessional on his part. According to the WSJ reporter - when interviewed on Maddow - Mr. Smith was proud of his work trying to get those Hillary emails, and saw nothing wrong in how he want about it.
 
S

Shauni

Member
Suikoguy said:
Uh, they have a what?

That seems to me to encourage suicide.
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Some life insurance policies have a certain amount of years that your payout will be voided due to suicide, but after those amount of years pass (let's say 3 years), it still pays out even on suicide.

Edit: Yeah, as explained above.
 
S

Snowman Prophet of Doom

Member
Suikoguy said:
Uh, they have a what?

That seems to me to encourage suicide.
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The clause typically sunsets after a length of time considered adequate to discourage people from getting a policy JUST to kill themselves and get a payout for their family, but given suicidal depression is a thing that can have an onset after one gets a policy, it seems as though it would be cruel to exclude it, imo.
 
R

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Is that a common method of suicide? I've never heard of such a thing - it sounds like something out of a movie.
 
L

Lo-Volt

Member
Life Insurance does, sometimes, get paid out over deaths by suicide.

The "suicide clause." Usually, this clause states that no death benefit will be paid if the insured commits suicide within two years of taking out a policy. Whenever an insured person replaces an existing life insurance policy with a new one, the time clock for the suicide clause is set back to zero and starts over again.
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That is not a blanket denial.

I got beat so hard on that point it was like a damn blue shell. But I still find this so suspicious, no matter what the WSJ thought of his state of mind. This is too interesting of a chain of events to be innocuous.
 
S

Shauni

Member
It should also be noted that unlike the other Russian related deaths, this guy seemingly had no direct ties with Russia. I mean, maybe something will come out about that, but I think this as a suicide isn't that out there. The method is odd, but the full article explains how it's not a unique case for people who want a painless death without any risk of somehow fucking up shooting themselves
 
Ardenyal

Ardenyal

Member
Good thing he cleared up he didn't accidentally trip and fall head first into a plastic bag.

What an odd way to off yourself.
 
Z

Zubz

Banned
Shauni said:
Oh boy, I feel this is going to blow up because a lot of people aren't going to read the whole thing.
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To be fair, the primary reason for this is hella suspect. I also fear there'll be a lot of conspiracies thrown around in every direction for something that could just be a "Death of a Salesman" style misunderstanding of life insurance, though. Or he might just have surprisingly good coverage none of us could dream of having.

Either way, he was likely an abhorrent person based on the one other action I know he did being an attempt to torpedo the Clinton campaign & corral this conservative Constitutional chaos. And I have no trust for anyone that considers Flynn an ally. That said, suicide's always sad, especially at 81. I feel guilty for saying it, but RIP.
 
M

Mael

Member
The crazy thing is that the GOP probably did more to make sure his health-related debt would push him to suicide than anything else.
Chalk it up to Breaking Bad situation where this is really a scenario in the US :/
 
E

Earendil

Member
Dhx said:
Suicide clause is limited. It usually is about 2 years from when the policy takes effect. At 81, it probably expired long ago.
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It also depends on the state. Some states have different rules, but in any case, I would think that the suicide clause would have expired well before now if the policy itself was set to expire.
 
F

facelike

Member
A bag on the head attached to helium.....

This could be a real suicide as people up in age will do that. But that is just a little suspect, right?
 
K

Kusagari

Member
His name was Peter Smith.

I disagreed with his politics, but nobody deserves to be murdered by Putin and Trump.

JUSTICE FOR PETER!
 
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