Another big political story this week is the lawsuit that we were just talking about filed by the Democratic National Committee alleging collusion between the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks and the Russian government. Earlier today, I spoke with Luis Miranda. He was the DNC communications director when WikiLeaks published thousands of hacked emails. In fact, many of his emails were hacked and made public. And I started our conversation by asking him what the DNC hoped to accomplish with this lawsuit.
LUIS MIRANDA: I think it’s an important lawsuit because while the criminal process has to move on, there also needs to be a civil side. The DNC certainly has standing. Its case is pretty thorough in terms of the damage that was caused and the impact that these nefarious actions had during the 2016 election. And people need to be held to account. And so it’s an important part of our legal process to have a civil lawsuit that tracks alongside the criminal one.
MARTIN: But why, though? I mean, a civil lawsuit is between, you know, two private entities. It implies that there were specific damages that one entity inflicted upon the other. I mean, what damages did the DNC experience because of this?
MIRANDA: The DNC experienced significant financial damage, for starters. A lot of donations were lost that would have otherwise been made by donors who were concerned that their information might be exposed. They spent a lot of money also having to revamp their systems and mitigate the damage from the leaks and the intrusion.
And there was also personal and emotional damage here that is important. In the suit, they mentioned the harassment that staff endured in the aftermath of the leaks and death threats, threats of all kind. And that’s important too because it made it harder for the staff to get their work done, to focus, to do the internal and external communications…. Continue Reading