Earlier this week, we saw Donald Trump Jr. becoming the latest Trump administration domino to lawyer-up in the daily unfolding Trump/Russia election hacking saga.
Now the next campaign and longtime Trump ally to fall: Roger Stone.
Wednesday, nonprofit watchdog group United to Protect Democracy filed a lawsuit against Stone for his alleged connection with Wikileaks’ publication of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
In a statement, the group’s executive director Ian Bassin said:
“In the hacking and distribution of Americans’ private information during the 2016 election, there were real victims. These plaintiffs are using the law and the American civil justice system the way it was intended: to vindicate important rights and values, such as the right to privacy and the right to participate in the political process; and to deter others who might consider colluding with a foreign government for political gain.”
In the lawsuit, former DNC staffer Scott Comer, and donors Roy Cockrum and Eric Schoenberg, accuse Stone and the Trump campaign of:
“[Entering] into an agreement with other parties, including agents of Russia and WikiLeaks, to have information stolen from the DNC publicly disseminated.”
Scott Comer was the DNC finance department chief of staff. He stated that in addition to sensitive correspondences between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff and DNC officials, the hacked emails outed his homosexuality, straining relations with his family.
Comer received threatening phone calls, and eventually left his position with the DNC because of comments the emails reveal he made about co-workers.
Roy Cockrum and Eric Schoenberg’s Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and other personal information were publicized in the email dump. The lawsuit reveals strangers attempted to steal their identities to open credit accounts, which will cost the plaintiffs:
“Significant distress and anxiety and will require lifelong vigilance and expense.”
Wikileaks published the first stolen DNC email archive to tip the scales in favor of the Trump campaign last June 22.
Intelligence agencies assert Russia obtained the emails through its relentless hacking of the US election system in cooperation with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, an outspoken critic of Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.
If the judge hearing the suit permits the case to proceed, it would open a new and independent fact-finding investigation into the Trump administration’s possible collusion with Russia, transcending House and Senate Intelligence Committees, or the criminal inquiry special counsel Robert Mueller III is leading.
Featured image from YouTube video.
