The Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit against Trump’s presidential campaign, the Russian government, and Wikileaks on Friday, seeking millions of dollars of damages for what the DNC called an illegal conspiracy to “bolster Trump and denigrate the Democratic Party nominee” in order to win the 2016 election.
The defendants also include Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, a Russian spy agency and Russian hackers, and Trump campaign figures including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner.
The party’s court filing alleges that, “In the Trump campaign, Russia found a willing and active partner” for “a brazen attack on American Democracy” that involved Russian hackers infiltrating the Democratic Party’s computer network, and that the Trump campaign “gleefully welcomed Russia’s help.”
The lawsuit describes “preexisting relationships” between Russia and Russian oligarchs and Trump and his associates as “fertile ground” for conspiracy.
Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called the conspiracy “an act of unprecedented treachery” by a presidential nominee “in league with a hostile foreign power” and said Democrats’ lawsuit “is not partisan, it’s patriotic.”
There is precedent for such a lawsuit. The Democrats sued Richard Nixon’s campaign for the Watergate break-in and won a settlement of $750,000 (about $4.5 million in 2018 dollars). The claims in the new lawsuit include computer fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, trespass, and other illegal acts. Read story here.
Photo: The case was filed in Manhattan federal district court