Trump campaign seeks sanctions against DNC over Russia collusion lawsuit: ‘Frivolous factual fantasies’
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The Democratic National Committee is still pressing forward with a lawsuit alleging the Trump campaign actively colluded with Russia and WikiLeaks to steal and publish DNC emails -- but the campaign is citing the Mueller report itself to argue they have no case.
Calling the DNC's claim "frivolous," the campaign has even asked the judge to hit the party with monetary sanctions for maintaining a case based on the "assumption" that the campaign "conspired or coordinated" with Russia in the hacking and publishing of DNC emails. The complaint had alleged the campaign also "solicited" illegal assistance from Russia.
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"Suffice to say, that assumption did not pan out," the Trump campaign said Tuesday in a court filing. "Quite the opposite: Special Counsel Mueller's historically expensive investigation definitively refuted the notion that the Campaign conspired or in any way coordinated with Russia. ...
"In short, since the DNC's frivolous legal theories have now been exposed as resting on frivolous factual fantasies, these are two independent reasons to terminate this sham political litigation before it does even more harm."
The filing said that with the "vast body of evidence" that Mueller collected over the course of his investigation of Russian election interference, they could not show that the campaign had anything to do with Russia's activities. "In so doing, the Report makes clear that the DNC will never be able to prove the key allegations underlying all of its claims against the campaign."
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The Trump campaign argued that Mueller's report should have been an impetus for the DNC to drop the lawsuit, claiming it proved there was no basis.
"The DNC, however, has refused to accept this reality," the court document said, noting that the Democrats "emphatically doubled down" by fighting the campaign's motion to dismiss "just hours after the Report's public release."
In a bit of irony, the campaign cited an interview that DNC Chairman Tom Perez gave with ABC when the lawsuit first began. When asked whether he was concerned about President Trump responding with legal action of his own, Perez said, "There's this thing called Rule 11, where you get sanctioned," referring to the section of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that allows for sanctions against those who file frivolous lawsuits.
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The Trump campaign is now claiming that Rule 11 can be used to penalize the DNC with both monetary sanctions and dismissal of the lawsuit.
The DNC did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. When the Mueller report first came out, the DNC issued a statement claiming it showed "a stunning picture of bottomless corruption" and that Congress needed to see the full report.
MUELLER APPEARS TO HAVE EDITED VOICEMAIL TRANSCRIPT BETWEEN JOHN DOWD AND FLYNN LAWYER
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"When a foreign adversary attacked our democracy, Donald Trump and his team were thrilled to reap the benefits," the statement said.
While the Mueller report said that the Trump campaign expected it would benefit electorally from Russia's actions, it also made clear that the Russia probe "did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice in connection with the probe.