While American voters as a whole were harmed by the influence of Russian government operations to upend the 2016 presidential elections, but those who suffered the most lasting harm are filing a lawsuit.
In light of revelations regarding the illegal hack into the DNC’s email server, the political party’s committee filed a lawsuit against the Russian government, WikiLeaks, and the Trump campaign, each of those entities already proven to have played a part in the hacking.
Breaking News: The Democratic Party filed a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy by Russian officials, the Trump campaign and Wikileaks to damage the Clinton campaign https://t.co/NZqsIhYFEh
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 20, 2018
DNCÂ Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement published by ABC News:
‘No one is above the law and the perpetrators of this attack must be held accountable. They successfully hacked the Democratic Party in 2016 and they will be back. We must prevent future attacks on our democracy, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today. This is not partisan, it’s patriotic.’
NEW: The DNC files lawsuit in federal court alleging conspiracy by Trump's 2016 campaign, the Russian government and Wikileaks.
More analysis from @mitchellreports and @PeteWilliamsNBC pic.twitter.com/FXCbWBcUlp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 20, 2018
There is no doubt that Russia made serious attempts to influence the election in favor of Trump or that they repeatedly made offers to Trump campaign associates to exchange harmful information against Hillary Clinton. There is also no doubt that WikiLeaks coordinated with Russian hacker Guccifer 2.0 to publish the stolen communications.
The Trump campaign officials who have been named as those who received such offers but did not report them is long.
‘The defendants in the case include both Russian nationals and prominent figures in the Trump campaign, including the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his one-time campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Several of those named, like Manafort, have been charged by special counselRobert Mueller. Democrats said they have written a first draft of what they undoubtedly hope criminal prosecutors will find.’
According to The Washington Post:
‘The case asserts that the Russian hacking campaign — combined with Trump associates’ contacts with Russia and the campaign’s public cheerleading of the hacks — amounted to an illegal conspiracy to interfere in the election that caused serious damage to the Democratic Party.’
There is most certainly proof that some associates of the presidential campaign have made statements about having coordinated with hackers to get the stolen emails released. Roger Stone, an informal adviser during the campaign and longtime friend of Trump, said publicly that he had been in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange prior to the release of the emails, and tweeted about coming soon days ahead of the release. Stone is another Trump associate named in the DNC’s lawsuit.
The last time the DNC filed such a lawsuit was in 1972 when DNC headquarters in the Watergate complex were broken into, which ended with the arrests of some of the president’s associates and the resignation of the president who tried to cover it up.
Featured image via Getty/Bloomberg
