Democrats Urge Judge Not to Dismiss Russian Hacking Suit

(Bloomberg) -- While much of the U.S. was poring over the Mueller Report, the Democratic National Committee argued Thursday that its civil suit against President Donald Trump, the Russian Federation, WikiLeaks and members of the Trump campaign and White House should go forward.

The DNC claims the defendants violated U.S. racketeering, computer fraud and other laws by conspiring to hack emails from DNC computers and leak them in advance of the 2016 election in a "brazen attack on American democracy." The conspiracy sought to help Trump become president and continued into his presidency, according to the DNC.

"After securing Trump’s grip on power, defendants worked tirelessly to keep it, lying to the American public, Congress, the Justice Department and the FBI to conceal any misconduct that jeopardized Trump’s presidency," the DNC said in court papers filed late Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

Trump’s campaign organization said in court papers in January that the suit is no more than attempt to "explain away" Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the election.

The case is Democratic National Committee v. The Russian Federation, 18-cv-03501, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net

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