The Democratic National Committee, an undeniably political enterprise, may have just found a legal avenue through which to press its case in 2018 with the filing of a new lawsuit against Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. The complaint, alleging the three entities conspired to damage Hillary Clinton's 2016 candidacy while boosting Donald Trump's could give the DNC the kind of purpose it has been lacking ever since a change in leadership following Clinton's defeat. Here's how DNC chair Tom Perez framed it:
“During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russia launched an all-out assault on our democracy, and it found a willing and active partner in Donald Trump’s campaign,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.
“This constituted an act of unprecedented treachery: the campaign of a nominee for President of the United States in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the presidency,” he said.
In effect, this suit and the resultant media coverage as it proceeds gives national Democrats a crafty way to remind voters of the "treachery" Team Trump invited into our democracy without raising the prospect of impeachment—even as they bolster the case for it in court. Of course, there’s plenty of room to err, as national security writer Marcy Wheeler notes.
But to be fair, Perez had nothing to do with the Fusion GPS opposition research that ultimately produced the controversial Steele dossier. And ever since he took over leadership of the beleaguered DNC in early 2017, it's been a little unclear exactly how a national outfit like the DNC would fit into a political environment that's largely been fueled on the left by localized grassroots energy. In fact, following the 2016 loss, national Democrats seem to have mostly made a concerted effort to stay out of high-profile special elections so Democratic candidates could run local races against their Republican opponents.
So what's a nationally situated political operation to do in an election cycle where localized races are the order of the day? File a lawsuit, apparently, that can draw headlines, perhaps uncover new revelations and serve as a constant thorn in your opponents’ side. If there's one thing both the Russia probe and the Stormy Daniels lawsuits have proven, it's that Trump just can't help but imperil himself by commenting on cases in which he is materially involved. And goddess knows the judicial system works his every last nerve.
I'll go ahead and say it: I like the move at first blush—though as Wheeler noted above, it's all in the execution. But from my perspective, this gives the DNC a legitimate way to both needle Trump and keep the very real issue of whether he colluded with Russia to hijack our democracy alive and well. And similar to the Stormy lawsuit, the DNC suit stands to benefit from every new revelation and/or indictment made by the special counsel investigation. All the while, the DNC can simply say, the American people deserve to know the truth. Hard to argue with that.
Keeping Trump's Russian connections topical and advancing his legal woes at the national level while local Democratic candidates make their case to their constituencies could be a smart way for the DNC to play a supportive role in the midterm elections and even 2020.