President Donald Trump on Friday declared victory over a collusion lawsuit that was filed by a former employee of the Democratic National Committee, alleging the Trump campaign and Roger Stone colluded with Russia and WikiLeaks to publish hacked DNC emails.
“Just won the lawsuit filed by the DNC and a bunch of Democrat crazies trying to the Trump Campaign (and others), colluded with Russia,” he tweeted Friday afternoon.
Just won lawsuit filed by the DNC and a bunch of Democrat crazies trying to claim the Trump Campaign (and others), colluded with Russia. They haven’t figured out that this was an excuse for them losing the election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2018
Despite Trump’s implication that the judge cleared his campaign of collusion with Russia, the lawsuit was tossed by a federal judge on Tuesday because of a jurisdictional technicality.
“It bears emphasizing that this Court’s ruling is not based on a finding that there was no collusion between defendants and Russia during the 2016 presidential election,” Judge Ellen Huvelle wrote in her ruling, according to Politico. “This is the wrong forum for plaintiffs’ lawsuit. The Court takes no position on the merits of plaintiffs’ claims.”
The lawsuit was filed last year by DNC donors — Roy Cockrum and Eric Schoenberg — and staffer Scott Comer, not by the DNC, as Trump suggested in his tweet. The donors and former staffer alleged that the Trump campaign and Stone worked with the Russians to hack the DNC’s emails, and the plaintiffs argued that the publishing of the hacked emails was an invasion of their privacy.
It’s been reported that Stone exchanged messages with WikiLeaks and another account that was reportedly responsible for sharing the files during the campaign. Stone also recently fessed up about his contacts with a Russian national who wanted money in exchange for dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The DNC has filed its own lawsuit against Russia, the Trump campaign and others related to the email hack.
