Judge tosses suit alleging Trump campaign conspired with Russia in DNC hack
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump’s campaign and former Trump adviser Roger Stone conspired with Russia and WikiLeaks to publish hacked Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential race.
U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle said in a ruling Tuesday evening that the suit’s efforts to tie the Trump campaign and Stone’s alleged actions to the nation’s capital were too flimsy for the case to proceed in a Washington, D.C., court.
“The Trump Campaign’s efforts to elect President Trump in D.C. are not suit-related contacts for those efforts did not involve acts taken in furtherance of the conspiracies to disseminate emails that harmed plaintiffs,” wrote Huvelle, an appointee of President Bill Clinton. “Campaign meetings, canvassing voters, and other regular business activities of a political campaign do not constitute activities related to the conspiracies alleged in the complaint.”
But Huvelle made clear that her decision was a technical one based on issues of legal jurisdiction and was not a definitive ruling on allegations that the Trump campaign struck an illicit deal with the Russians during the presidential contest.
“It bears emphasizing that this Court’s ruling is not based on a finding that there was no collusion between defendants and Russia during the 2016 presidential election,” Huvelle wrote. “This is the wrong forum for plaintiffs’ lawsuit. The Court takes no position on the merits of plaintiffs’ claims.”
Two DNC donors, Roy Cockrum and Eric Schoenberg, and former DNC staffer Scott Comer, filed the suit last year, alleging that the hacking invaded their privacy and that the Trump campaign and Stone had a role in unlawful activity.
Stone, who worked both as a formal and informal adviser to the Trump campaign, exchanged digital messages during the election with WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, an online persona that U.S. officials have said was a Russian front for disseminating the stolen DNC files. Various meetings between Trump aides and Kremlin-linked individuals have also come out since the election.
The DNC was not a party to the suit the two donors and the former staffer filed last July. However, in April of this year, the DNC brought its own lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan, accusing the Russian government, the Trump campaign, Trump’s son Donald Jr., Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and various other figures of roles in events related to the hacking. That case is still in its early stages.
The Trump resistance group Protect Democracy, which filed the suit dismissed Tuesday, suggested it might refile the case elsewhere.
“While we are disappointed in and respectfully disagree with today’s decision from the District Court to dismiss this case on the grounds that it does not belong in Washington, D.C., this case is far from over,” Protect Democracy’s Ian Bassin said in a statement. " It is clear that the the Court recognizes that there is sufficient evidence to suggest a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and the Kremlin, but believes this case belongs in a different court. What today’s decision indicates is that the merits of this case will proceed somewhere.”
Attorneys for the Trump campaign and Stone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.