Just in time to ruin El Presidente's weekend, the DNC has filed a civil lawsuit against the Trump Campaign, Wikileaks, and Russia:
The complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and help Trump by hacking the computer networks of the Democratic Party and disseminating stolen material found there.
“During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump’s campaign,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.
“This constituted an act of unprecedented treachery: the campaign of a nominee for President of the United States in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency,” he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-party-files-lawsuit-alleging-russia-the-trump-campaign-and-wikileaks-conspired-to-disrupt-the-2016-campaign/2018/04/20/befe8364-4418-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?utm_term=.502479b893d7
We believe that Russia found a willing partner in the Trump campaign, who shared their goal of damaging the Democratic Party and helping elect Donald Trump. The Trump campaign had repeated secretive communications with Russian agents and WikiLeaks. Russian agents told Trump advisors that the Kremlin wanted to help Trump and had stolen emails and other material that could damage Trump’s opponent. And Trump’s closest political advisor, Roger Stone, had advance knowledge of a major release of stolen Democratic emails.
http://medium.com/@TheDemocrats/were-suing-the-trump-campaign-and-russia-72a6b76067e6
Personally, I don’t think the suit will amount to much, but the simple act of filing it consolidates and clarifies all the issues at hand.
Russia tried to interfere with our election. WikiLeaks helped. And the Trump Campaign, even if they were not an active conspirator, at least knew about it and did nothing to stop it.
Whether or not the interference had any effect is irrelevant. We were attacked (this is warfare in the 21st century, people….). Neither the Trump Administration nor the GOP cares.
One notes that the last time the DNC brought a civil suit like this was during Watergate - and they won.
Russia and WikiLeaks are probably not going to have to worry. But if the suit does get past the inevitable Motion to Dismiss from Trump & Co., then it goes to the Discovery phase, where all the details and connections between the dots will have to come out....