DNC Files Lawsuit against Trump, Russia and WikiLeaks for 2016 election
Trump campaign and associates conspired to disrupt election, lawsuit claims
The Democratic National Committee filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump campaign, the Russian government, Wikileaks and other close associates alleging a massive conspiracy to undermine the 2016 U.S. presidential election and help now-President Donald Trump win.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan, says that the Trump campaign worked with the Russian government and its spy agencies to collude against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by hacking the Democratic Party’s computer networks and leaking the stolen information.
The suit includes claims of illegal hacking and racketeering and seeks unspecified damages.
“During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump’s campaign,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement to the Washington Post.
The case says Russian hacking, combined with the Trump campaign’s support of information leaks and contacts with Russia amount to an illegal conspiracy to interfere with the election.
Defendants include Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates, Roger Stone, Julian Assange and his organization WikiLeaks in addition to the GRU, Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency. Trump himself is not named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit released the specific dates of the DNC hackings: starting July 27, 2015 with breaches happening again in April 2016, according to the Washington Post report. Four days after the April breach, Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos received word that Russians possessed thousands of Clinton emails.
Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are still investigating possible Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election.
Trump has repeatedly said there was no interference in the elections and has criticized the investigation into his campaign.
Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018
The federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Cohen Milstein law firm, based out of Washington, D.C.
