Federal Judge Throws Out DNC Hacking Lawsuit

Judge John Koeltl decided to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the Trump team over hacked Democratic National Committee documents, saying they, “Did not participate in any wrongdoing in obtaining the materials in the first place,” and didn’t have any legal liability for spreading the information.

In their lawsuit, the DNC argued that the Trump team’s meetings were with, “Persons connected to the Russian government during the time that the Russian GRU agents were stealing the DNC’s information,” and that this is “circumstantial evidence.” The DNC claimed that Trump’s team was conspiring with the Russians in order to, “-steal and disseminate the DNC’s materials.”

In addition to the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russia, the DNC’s suit named: Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, George Papadopoulos, Richard Gates, Roger Stone, Joseph Mifsud and Julian Assange.

The lawsuit sought to hold the Trump team responsible for the theft of the DNC’s information under several Virginia and federal statutes.

The DNC alleged that the defendants illegally compromised their trade secrets contained in some of the stolen documents.

Judge Koeltl didn’t find the DNC’s argument convincing, however.

Judge Koeltl said, “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,”

President Trump tweeted just hours after the decision that the ruling was, “Yet another total & complete vindication & exoneration,” and then, “Wow! A federal Judge in the Southern District of N.Y. completely dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee against our historic 2016 campaign for President.”