Responding to the lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party, US President Donald Trump has remarked that he will counter the lawsuit with the help of ‘documents held by Pakistani mystery man’, Clinton emails and Debbie Wasserman Schultz servers.
In a tweet, the US President wrote, “Just heard the Campaign was sued by the Obstructionist Democrats. This can be good news in that we will now counter for the DNC Server that they refused to give to the FBI, the Debbie Wasserman Schultz Servers and Documents held by the Pakistani mystery man and Clinton Emails.”
The Democratic Party had filed a lawsuit alleging that Russia, WikiLeaks, and top officials from Donald Trump’s campaign conspired to tilt the 2016 US presidential election in the Republican’s favour. The civil complaint filed in federal District Court in Manhattan by the Democratic National Committee alleges that Russia informed Trump’s campaign that it had conducted a cyber-attack on the DNC, leading to the release of information damaging to Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton.
It also says a close Trump advisor, Roger Stone, appeared to have ‘advance knowledge’ of plans by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks to disseminate some of the stolen information – as part of what the suits allege was a wide-ranging illegal conspiracy to influence the election. In a series of meetings and communications, Russian officials or representatives coordinated with Trump campaign personnel or associates for more than a year as they sought to lay the groundwork for a Trump upset, the Democrats allege.
“The Trump campaign and its agents gleefully welcomed Russia’s help,” according to the 66-page complaint, which demands monetary damages and a declaration that the defendants conspired illegally. “The conspiracy constituted an act of previously unimaginable treachery: the campaign of the presidential nominee of a major party in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency,” it added.
The lawsuit targets Trump’s campaign, his son Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and numerous campaign officials including Paul Manafort, as well as the Russian government including its foreign military intelligence agency, and WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. “During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump’s campaign,” DNC chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.
Published in Daily Times, April 22nd 2018.