Democrats Sue Trump Campaign, Russia, WikiLeaks, Putin, J. Edgar Hoover, Mahatma Gandhi Over 2016 Election
The Democratic National Committee sued the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks on Friday, accusing them of a wide-ranging conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to defeat the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants conspired before the election to hack into the DNC’s computer network and strategically leak the stolen information to bolster Donald Trump’s chances of winning the election. The conspiracy sought to undermine Mrs. Clinton’s campaign because Mr. Trump’s presidency was expected to benefit Russian political and financial interests, which would, in turn, benefit Mr. Trump’s financial interests, the lawsuit alleged.
The DNC accused the Trump campaign of having “repeated secretive communications” with Russian agents and WikiLeaks.
“We’re taking this action because we believe no one is above the law, and we must pursue every avenue of justice against those who engaged in this illegal activity against the DNC and our democracy,” the committee said in a statement.
Among the lead defendants in the lawsuit are the Russian Federation and Russia’s military intelligence agency, as well as WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
The lawsuit doesn’t name Mr. Trump as a defendant, but it names individuals either currently or previously in his inner circle, including Donald Trump Jr. , his son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner, longtime adviser Roger Stone and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
None of the defendants immediately responded to requests for comment. Russia has denied having meddled in the election, and the Trump campaign has denied having worked with the Russians.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, the home base of the Trump campaign, seeks an unspecified amount of damages and requests a jury trial. The DNC said in the lawsuit it paid more than $1 million in the fallout of the hack to repair electronic equipment and hire additional staff. One DNC official estimated the organization may have suffered “hundreds of millions of dollars” in overall damages from the breach.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez has been interested in a legal remedy to the hack since his election as chairman in February 2017, according to the DNC official, and the organization had been gathering facts and finding the right law firm to support a lawsuit. The DNC is represented by law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, which is also representing victims of the 2015 breach into health insurer Anthem Inc.
The email disclosures had a “chilling effect” on donations to the DNC and resulted in “substantial loss of income” to the organization, according to the DNC. The lawsuit said the organization’s employees were exposed to harassment and death threats as a result of the leaked emails.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has publicly charged a total of 19 people in a wide-ranging probe into what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian campaign designed to influence the 2016 election and help Mr. Trump win. Three Trump associates have pleaded guilty to criminal misconduct and have agreed to cooperate in the investigation.
Mr. Manafort and his business partner, Richard Gates, were charged with financial crimes and lobbying work unrelated to the Trump campaign. Mr. Manafort has pleaded not guilty; Mr. Gates struck a plea deal in late February.
Mr. Mueller’s probe hasn’t spawned charges related to the DNC hack, which was detected by the organization in April 2016. In mid-February, federal prosecutors indicted three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens for election meddling related to social media, alleging the Russians had the “strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system.”