Need I say it? </sarc>
Posted on 04/22/2018 6:21:37 AM PDT by Magnatron
The Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday alleging a conspiracy between the Russian government, the hacker known as Guccifer 2.0, the Trump campaign, and WikiLeaks to influence the 2016 presidential election. The lawsuit claims that Trump’s pre-existing relationship with Russia led to a plot to help him win the White House, using stolen DNC records that were published by WikiLeaks, but it doesn’t exactly explain how it all supposedly went down. Here are the main takeaways of the lawsuit. Read the full complaint below.
1. Major allegations against Russia and WikiLeaks. The Trump campaign? Not so much.
The 54-page complaint (66 with footnotes) kicks off by claiming that “individuals tied to the Kremlin” told the Trump campaign in 2016 that Russia had intentions to “interfere with our democracy,” and were “prepared to use stolen emails and other information” to hurt the Democratic nominee. The DNC claims that Trump’s campaign “gleefully” accepted the offer. This is basically the theme for the entire lawsuit. The lawsuit details alleged illegal activities by Russian operatives in the form of hacks, WikiLeaks’ role in publishing hacked emails, but it does not make clear what the campaign’s role was in those acts. It only describes how the Trump campaign readily benefited from these activities.
There are claims that the Trump campaign committed RICO and Wiretap Act violations, claiming that the campaign itself was a racketeering enterprise. It alleges that various Trump associates, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange “directed, induced, urged, and/or encouraged Russia and the GRU ” to commit illegal acts for the purpose of helping Trump’s campaign. Still, there is no evidence of what the campaign’s role was.
Indeed, half of the counts in the complaint are not against the Trump campaign or Trump’s associates, just Russia and foreign actors.
2. It’s all somehow connected to Trump’s real estate aspirations in Moscow
The lawsuit first claims that the conspiracy began in 2016, but then says it really began before then, when Trump signed a letter of intent to develop real estate in Moscow. A Russian business partner of Trump’s, Felix Sater (who has reportedly been connected to Russian organized crime), allegedly told Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, that he would get Vladimir Putin behind the project, which would somehow increase Trump’s chances of winning the election. The lawsuit does not explain how that would work.
3. A list of events without connecting the dots
The lawsuit reads like a summary of all Trump-Russia-DNC news from the past few years, without actually explaining how it reveals anything illegal. It lists Russian email hacks of the DNC and John Podesta, discusses known communications between Trump campaign members like Donald Trump Jr. and George Papadopoulos with Russian individuals, and talks about how the Trump campaign softened language in the GOP platform by removing anti-Russia language. What it doesn’t do is explain the relationship between any of these.
4. Roger Stone allegedly knew more than he should have
The complaint refers to Roger Stone’s claims that he had been in touch with both Guccifer 2.0 and Julian Assange. It also claims that Stone predicted certain developments regarding hacked emails before there was public disclosure of the hacking. The complaint doesn’t say what role Stone may or may not have had in the hacks or subsequent publication of the emails, it only implies that he knew of them in advance.
5. The strongest evidence against the campaign was that they acted guilty
The main evidence of guilt that the lawsuit provides regarding the Trump campaign is based on the claim that people within the campaign lied about their activities after the fact.
The lawsuit lists instances where people connected to the Trump campaign, including Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks, Donald Trump Jr., George Papadopoulos, and Paul Manafort denied having any ties to Russia, when this was later found to be false.
Evidence of suspicious behavior is certainly valid to establish consciousness of guilt, but it usually helps to also have evidence of actual illegal acts.
6. DNC claims a wide variety of damage
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for a wide variety of alleged harms. These include damage as a result of the loss of trade secrets, damage to the DNC’s physical computers and servers, and harm done to the relationship between the DNC and voters. It also lists instances where DNC employees suffered harm in the form of personal threats made against them and their families after DNC emails were published.
On top of all this, there’s one glaring absence from the lawsuit: President Trump. Perhaps surprisingly, a lawsuit that alleges a massive conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, that allegedly stemmed from Trump’s business aspirations, does not make any allegations against Trump himself.
It’s a DNC Fundraising stunt, nothing more.
And, it’s not going to work for THAT purpose, either. :)
I assume the DNC has filed this in the Court of a Friendly NY Judge who wont throw it out.
Does the political target get to inspect the DNC server during discovery?
You betcha!
My thoughts too. Careful what you wish for.
At NPR this morning, not a word about this, the DOJ IG criminal referral of McCabe, nor the Nork’s apparent willingness to de-nuclearize.
We got ‘em by the b@lls. SQUEEZE.
When your enemy is marching off a cliff don’t try to stop him.
Just more evidence that the Democrat leadership has been driven insane by unexpected and continued loss. Their fantasy land expectations are just not lining up with reality, very hard for them.
I don't know. Maybe Trump should make no motion for dismissal and refuse when the DNC tries to withdraw it. It sure would be nice to get these people under oath.
About 20 years ago John Dean sued G. Gordon Liddy but tried to withdraw. Liddy wouldn't let him withdraw and they went to court where Liddy proved that John Dean's motivation was to have the break-in team remove documents relating to Dean's former prostitute wife.
Need I say it? </sarc>
Courts love being used as fundraising mechanisms for political parties.
Can anyone explain how the Russians managed to stuff the ballot boxes in some two dozen states without anyone noticing or how an anti Hillary disinformation campaign succeeded swinging the election when the vast majority of the US media were totally in the tank for Hillary.
A judge who would throw it out would probably be most helpful. They’ve made the news cycle with their little game, but they HAVE to know that pursuing it will cost them millions & allow Trump to go after them on a number of fronts under discovery.
This was a pretty stupid move, politically. I hope it bites them Big Time.
Then the Trump campaign or whoever is being sued can put James Comey on the witness stand and ask him why he, his FBI did not investigate the "hacking" of the DNC server, wasn't that a crime worth the FBI's investigative team?
This is huge and serious. Why has there not been an investigation into these allegations of Russian collusion?
The DNC has opened themselves up to all kinds of interrogatories and discovery. LOLOLOL
“Does the political target get to inspect the DNC server during discovery?”
Technically, probably “yes”, but I think we know that’s never going to happen. They’ll either drop the suit, or, some liberal judge will “disallow” it on some bogus excuse.
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