Judge dismisses DNC hacking lawsuit against Trump team
A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that alleges Russia and WikiLeaks carried out a conspiracy to help Republican Donald Trump win the 2016 US election.
In July 2016, the WikiLeaks website released about 20,000 emails from the DNC, which showed that party leaders had purportedly sought to undermine the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders.
The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton alleged that Russia had released the emails to influence the November presidential election in the US. Both Trump and the Russian government, however, denied the accusations.
In a ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said members of the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks "did not participate in any wrongdoing in obtaining the materials in the first place," noting that they, therefore, bore no legal liability for disseminating the information.
"In short, the DNC raises a number of connections and communications between the defendants and with people loosely connected to the Russian Federation, but at no point does the DNC allege any facts ... to show that any of the defendants -- other than the Russian Federation -- participated in the theft of the DNC's information.”
"Nor does the DNC allege that the defendants ever agreed to help the Russian Federation steal the DNC's documents," he added.
Following the ruling, Trump said on Twitter the ruling was “yet another total & complete ... vindication & exoneration” of him and his campaign.
....vindication & exoneration from the Russian, WikiLeaks and every other form of HOAX perpetrated by the DNC, Radical Democrats and others. This is really big “stuff” especially coming from a highly respected judge who was appointed by President Clinton. The Witch Hunt Ends!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2019
Former US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who had investigated the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election for two years, completed his report in March, and the Justice Department released a redacted copy of his report in April.
Last week, in seven hours of congressional testimony, Mueller accused Trump of not always being truthful, called his support for the 2016 release of stolen Democratic emails "problematic" and said Russia would again try to interfere in the 2020 US elections.
The long-awaited testimony failed to add momentum to any Democratic impeachment ambitions and Trump heartily declared victory.
"The Democrats had nothing," the president told reporters then. "And now they have less than nothing. And I think they're going to lose the 2020 election very big, including congressional seats, because of the path that they choose."
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