Democratic National Committee sues Trump, Russia, Assange for conspiracy News
Democratic National Committee sues Trump, Russia, Assange for conspiracy

[JURIST] The Democratic National Committee (DNC) [political website] filed a lawsuit [complaint] Friday against Donald Trump, Russia, Julian Assange, Wikileaks, and several Trump aids including Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort.

The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [judicial website], alleges 12 causes of action, including computer crimes, trespass, fraud, conspiracy and violations of the Wiretap Act.

The suit is in response to the alleged cyberattack on the DNC. The complaint alleges that Trump and his aids knew of and supported Russia’s goal of using cyberattacks to undermine the DNC.

According to the complaint, “Defendants undermined and distorted the DNC’s ability to communicate the party’s values and vision to the American electorate; sowed discord within the Democratic party at a time when party unity was essential to electoral success; and seriously compromised the DNC’s internal and external communications.”

The DNC seeks damages and an injunction preventing the defendants from distributing any information gleaned from allegedly hacking their computers. They are also asked for a declaration that:

Defendants, according to proof, conspired to and did engage in a common scheme to effect the illegal and unauthorized hacking of Plaintiff’s computer systems and/or personal emails and the exfiltration of of confidential information; disseminated that stolen information to the public; and used that disclosed stolen information to impact the 2016 election for their own gain[.]

At the beginning of the month, the first sentence was handed down [JURIST report] in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the 2016 election. Last month Paul Manafort pleaded [JURIST report] not guilty to the Special Counsel’s charges.