Well, one thing is indisputably certain. Both the Russian Federation and President Trump’s Son-In-Law Jared Kushner both believe that the Democratic National Committee’s 87-page civil complaint should be thrown out of court.
The DNC’s Lawsuit was filed in April 2018 and names a who’s who of polarizing political figures as defendants, including the Russian Government, Russia's military intelligence service GRU, Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange as well as the infamous hacker known as Guccifer 2.0.
Also named in the complaint were several members of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign including the President’s Son, Donald Trump, Jr., former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, longtime adviser to the president, Roger Stone, Kushner, and Mueller probe target George Papadopoulos.
Within the text of the complaint, the DNC accuses the aforementioned Russian elements, Wikileaks and seemingly everyone who has ever shared small talk with the president of executing a conspiracy that damaged the election prospects of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by hacking the DNC’s servers in 2016, and then leaking the data online via WikiLeaks on behalf of the Republican Presidential nominee.
The two separate entities have entirely different reasons for their desire to see the lawsuit invalidated. The Russian Federation sent a 15-page response that cited the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which they claim grants Russia immunity from civil damages.
Specifically, representatives of Russia stated in the response, "The FSIA provides that foreign sovereign States enjoy absolute jurisdictional immunity from suit unless a plaintiff can demonstrate that one of the FSIA's enumerated 'exceptions' applies.”
The Russians also argued that, "Any alleged "military attack" is a quintessential sovereign act that does not fall within any exception to the FSIA or the customary international law of foreign sovereign immunity. The Russian Federation's sovereign immunity with respect to claims based upon such allegations is absolute."
What the Russians didn’t do in their response was issue any denial of their involvement in a conspiracy to intervene in the 2016 election. The also attempted to justify the hack, while not declaratively accepting responsibility for it, by citing previous examples of American intervention in international affairs.
"Indeed, the United States benefits significantly from the sovereign immunity that it enjoys (and U.S. officials enjoy) in foreign courts around the world with respect to the U.S.' frequent acts of cyber intrusion and political interference. As current and former U.S. officials have acknowledged on many occasions, the U.S. acting primarily through the National Security Agency (NSA) within the U.S. Department of Defense — is one of the most prolific practitioners of cyberattacks and cyber-intrusions on the planet," the letter states.
Kushner and his attorneys are taking exception to the lawsuit based on their belief that the DNC has a flimsy case built around his attendance at the controversial June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between campaign officials and a Russian attorney and adoption lobbyist that claimed to have damaging information regarding Hillary Clinton.
The DNC also cites Kushner’s position as a key "decision-maker" responsible for the campaign’s "unspecified data-driven efforts."
A court filing on behalf of Kushner states, "Beyond his alleged attendance at a single meeting, of which plaintiff tells us essentially nothing, the amended complaint does not allege a single action or statement involving Kushner, much less anything supporting an inference that he shared an unlawful purpose or took any actions in support or furtherance of the alleged trespass."
One thing that was failed to be presented by the DNC in their “blame shifting” lawsuit was any responsibility the Democrats had to properly secure their systems and protect themselves against a hacking attack.
One glaring example of that casts doubt over the legitimacy of the DNC lawsuit was Clinton campaign manager John Podesta being victimized by a "phishing" operation as a result of his use of the notoriously weak word "password" as the gateway to his emails.
This one single irresponsible action may have done more to harm the DNC than any yet unproven conspiracy theory cooked up by a political party that has lost touch with American voters.
Perhaps Russia did interfere, but the DNC is yet to clearly connect that interference to the Trump campaign. Hopefully, as the DNC eventually accepts their electoral shortcomings, Congress and the president can shift their focus back to improving America for its citizens.
Julio Rivera is a small business consultant, political activist, writer and Editorial Director for Reactionary Times. He has been a regular contributor to Newsmax TV and columnist for Newsmax.com since 2016. His writing, which is concentrated on politics, cybersecurity and sports, has also been published by websites including The Hill, The Washington Times, LifeZette, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Toronto Sun and PJ Media and many others. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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