The U.S. Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit against the Russian government, President Donald Trump’s election campaign, and the WikiLeaks organization, accusing them of conspiring to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign and tilt the election to Trump.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Manhattan on April 20, 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 Democratic Party computers.
The Trump 2020 reelection campaign committee called the lawsuit frivolous and said it was an effort by the Democrats to raise funds.
"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.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement that "Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump’s campaign.”
“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,” Perez said.
The lawsuit offers a detailed narrative of the DNC hacks, along with episodes in which key Trump aides are alleged to have been told Russia had damaging information about Clinton.
The lawsuit does not name Trump as a defendant, but it targets various Trump aides who met people believed to be affiliated with Russia during the election campaign.
They include president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates.
There was no immediate comment from the White House about the lawsuit.
Trump has repeatedly denied his campaign colluded with Russia. Moscow has denied meddling in the U.S. election.
