On April 20, 2018, the Democratic National Committee sued the Russian Federation, its military-intelligence service GRU, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, the Trump campaign and numerous individuals in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The DNC alleged that GRU operatives hacked its servers during the 2016 presidential campaign and transferred stolen emails to WikiLeaks, while accusing the Trump campaign and others of participating in a racketeering enterprise. The U.S. government had concluded that the GRU was responsible for the intrusion and leak, but those conclusions were not equivalent to a finding that every named defendant joined the hacking operation.
Judge John G. Koeltl dismissed the amended case with prejudice on July 30, 2019. He held that the Russian Federation was generally protected by U.S. foreign-sovereign-immunity law and concluded that the other defendants had not been alleged to have participated in obtaining the materials, leaving WikiLeaks and others with First Amendment protection for publishing them. The court denied sanctions sought against Trump campaign defendants. The ruling ended the civil action permanently, while separate investigations and criminal proceedings involving figures such as Rick Gates and Paul Manafort continued; it did not constitute a finding that the alleged GRU operation did not occur.
