In the wake of the Democrat Party’s stunning defeat in 2016, Democrats convinced themselves the loss was due solely to interference by the Russian government working in league with then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign and other actors such as WikiLeaks, most notably with regard to the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails and internal documents and the public dissemination thereof.
The DNC even filed a lawsuit seeking to hold the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russia accountable for the hacking and dissemination of the emails — but a federal judge just dismissed that lawsuit with prejudice in a clear victory for now-President Trump.
Defeat for DNC
The Hill reported that U.S. District Judge John Koeltl, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, issued his ruling on Tuesday dismissing the lawsuit alleging that the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russian actors all colluded to hack DNC servers and spread stolen emails and documents far and wide ahead of the 2016 election.
The judge noted immediately in his 81-page ruling that the only defendant who had been proven to have wronged the DNC was the Russian Federation, and, pursuant to the provisions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the Russian government could not be sued by the DNC.
As such, he continued, the only available recourse for that conduct would consist of state actions such as sanctions imposed by Congress or the White House.
As for the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, and even assuming all unproven allegations in the lawsuit to be true, the judge nevertheless laid out the manner in which the hacking had already occurred prior to either defendant becoming involved.
Given that fact, any dissemination of the information obtained from the initial hacks was protected by the First Amendment in the same way that any traditional media outlet would be protected for publishing leaked government documents deemed to be in the “public interest.”
Trump’s victory lap
President Trump seized on the dismissal as yet another victory for himself over the baseless and still-unproven allegations that he colluded, conspired or coordinated with the Russians in 2016, and he was quick to voice his approval on Twitter.
“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,” Trump wrote in a two-part tweet.
“The Judge said the DNC case was ‘entirely divorced’ from the facts, yet another total & complete vindication & exoneration from the Russian, WikiLeaks and every other form of HOAX perpetrated by the DNC, Radical Democrats and others,” he continued. “This is really big ‘stuff’ especially coming from a highly respected judge who was appointed by President Clinton. The Witch Hunt Ends!”
Putting Russiagate to rest
This ruling was indeed “really big ‘stuff'” that should bring to an end all of the nonsensical and conspiratorial allegations linking President Trump and Russia that has been put forward without any actual supporting facts for more than two years now.
President Trump has won again, and the victory was made even sweeter by the fact that it came by way of a Clinton-appointed judge and as a result of the same sort of First Amendment protections the Trump-hating media so often hide behind.