WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic Party sued the Russian government,
U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks on Friday,
charging that they carried out a wide-ranging conspiracy to influence
the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The party alleged in its federal lawsuit in Manhattan that top
officials in Trump’s Republican campaign conspired with the Russian
government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential
nominee Hillary Clinton and tilt the election to Trump by hacking
Democratic Party computers.
The lawsuit alleged that Trump’s
campaign “gleefully welcomed Russia’s help” in the 2016 election and
accuses it of being a “racketeering enterprise” that worked in tandem
with Moscow.
“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,” said Tom Perez, chair of the
Democratic National Committee. “This constituted an act of
unprecedented treachery.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but the
campaign operation Trump has already set up ahead of the 2020 president
election called the lawsuit frivolous and characterized it as a
fundraising effort.
“This is a sham lawsuit about a bogus
Russian collusion claim filed by a desperate, dysfunctional, and nearly
insolvent Democratic Party,” the campaign’s manager, Brad Parscale, said
in a statement.
Defendants in the lawsuit include three people
who have been indicted as a result of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s
investigation of Russian meddling: former campaign chairman Paul
Manafort, Manafort associate Rick Gates and former campaign aide George
Papadopoulos.
Also named as defendants were Donald Trump Jr., Trump associate Roger Stone and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
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