Mr. Perez, et. al.:
Unlike some, I believe the DNC’s lawsuit against Russia and Trump for President is not only good politics but good law. Far from interfering with Mr. Mueller’s ongoing investigation of the events surrounding the 2016 elections, the discovery process can augment and assist that investigation and prosecutions arising from it.
But there are some names missing, both from your suit and persons thus far named by the Special Counsel’s office.
Targeting Russia and, as Mr. Mueller has done, the Internet Research Agency and its trolls, is entirely legitimate. Mr. Prigozhin’s St. Petersburg operation unquestionably weaponized social media to spread disinformation and influence American public perceptions of the candidates.
It is also appropriate to focus on the Trump campaign itself. Busting the hit man while ignoring the person who hired him makes a farce of the idea of justice.
But so does overlooking the middlemen who provide the weapon.
Mr. Prigozhin’s trolls would have been much less effective had they not been supplied with the detailed demographic targeting information provided by Cambridge Analytica, specifying just which voters might be susceptible to persuasion, and by what sorts of messages.
Your suit, which in my opinion is both proper and warranted, is in need of amendment. Cambridge Analytica, Steve Bannon, Alexander Nix, Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer were all directly involved in Trump/Russia efforts to hijack the American election and must be included in the defendants named in the Democratic National Committee’s suit.
Just as Jeffrey Reinking is culpable in the Waffle House shootings for illegally supplying the gun his son used in the attack, Cambridge Analytica, it’s directors and funders, are liable for the 2016 attack on the United States.
cc: Robert S. Mueller III