Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 1 of 111 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE Plaintiff v THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ARAS ISKENEROVICH AGALAROV EMIN ARAZ AGALAROV JOSEPH MIFSUD WIKILEAKS JULIAN ASSANGE DONALD J TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT INC DONALD J TRUMP JR PAUL J MANAFORT JR ROGER J STONE JR JARED C KUSHNER GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS RICHARD W GATES III Defendants Civil Action No 1 18-cv-03501 JURY DEMAND SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT 18 U S C 1030 a RICO 18 U S C 1962 c RICO CONSPIRACY 18 U S C 1962 d WIRETAP ACT 18 U S C 2510-22 STORED COMMUNICATIONS ACT 18 U S C 2701-12 DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT 17 U S C 1201 et seq MISAPPROPRIATION OF TRADE SECRETS UNDER THE DEFEND TRADE SECRETS ACT 18 U S C 1831 et seq INFLUENCING OR INJURING OFFICER OR JUROR GENERALLY 18 U S C 1503 TAMPERING WITH A WITNESS VICTIM OR AN INFORMANT 18 U S C 1512 WASHINGTON D C UNIFORM TRADE SECRETS ACT D C Code Ann 36-401 - 46-410 TRESPASS D C Common Law CONVERSION D C Common Law TRESPASS TO CHATTELS Virginia Common Law Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 2 of 111 CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT TRESPASS TO CHATTELS Virginia Common Law CONVERSION Virginia Common Law VIRGINIA COMPUTER CRIMES ACT Va Code Ann 18 2-152 5 et seq 2 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 3 of 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page NATURE OF ACTION 1 I INTRODUCTION 1 II OVERVIEW OF THE CONSPIRACY 3 III DAMAGES TO THE DNC 9 JURISDICTION AND VENUE 10 PARTIES 11 GENERAL ALLEGATIONS 18 IV SEVERAL DEFENDANTS' PRE-EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH RUSSIA AND RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS PROVIDED FERTILE GROUND FOR A CONSPIRACY 18 V THE COMMON PURPOSE SECURE TRUMP'S GRIP ON THE PRESIDENCY THROUGH ILLEGAL MEANS 21 VI THE CONSPIRACY TO DISSEMINATE STOLEN DNC DATA TO AID TRUMP 24 A Trump Announces His Candidacy For President And Russia Begins Its Attack On The DNC's Computer Systems 25 B European Allies Sound The Alarm To U S Intelligence Regarding Communications Between Russians And Trump Associates 25 C While Campaigning For President Trump Signs A Letter Of Intent To Build Trump Tower Moscow 26 D The Trump Campaign Establishes Further Ties To Russia And Russian Intelligence Agents 26 E Russia Steals A Massive Trove Of Documents From The DNC 29 F The DNC Discovers The Hack And Hires CrowdStrike 31 G Forensic Evidence Confirms Russia's Attack On The DNC's Network 31 H Russians Again Offer To Assist Trump--And Trump Associates Accept The Offer 34 I Following The Trump Tower Meeting Russia Continues Its Hacking And Launches A Massive Public Dissemination Of Stolen DNC Documents 37 J WikiLeaks And Russian Intelligence Discuss A Plan To Use Stolen DNC Documents To Disrupt The Democratic National Convention 39 K The Trump Campaign Continues Communicating With Russian Agents And Blocks Anti-Russian Language From Being Added To The GOP i Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 4 of 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page L M N O P Q R Platform As WikiLeaks And The GRU Finalize Arrangement To Disrupt The Democratic National Convention 39 After The Trump Campaign Blocks Anti-Russia Language From The GOP Platform WikiLeaks Begins Disseminating Stolen DNC Documents 40 Trump Associates Secretly Communicate With Russian Agents And WikiLeaks As They Strategically Release Stolen DNC Documents 42 The GRU Reaches Out To Stone About Democratic Party Turnout Models 45 Russia Launches Another Attack On DNC Servers Housing Sensitive And Valuable Trade Secrets 46 Russia Continues Disseminating Stolen Documents 50 Trump Publicly Praises The Illegal Dissemination Of The Stolen DNC Data 50 Trump--And Russia--Win 52 VII THE DEFENDANTS' CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY CONTINUED AFTER THE 2016 ELECTION 52 VIII RUSSIA'S CONTINUED HACKING ATTEMPTS 60 A Russia Attempts To Hack The Computer Networks Of Three Midterm Candidates 60 B U S Authorities Make Clear That Russia Continues To Pose A Hacking Threat 60 C WikiLeaks Releases Amazon Document Compromising Security Of AWS Servers 61 D A Source Consistent With Cozy Bear Attempts To Hack The DNC's Computer System 61 IX TRUMP CONTINUES TO SIDE WITH RUSSIA AND DENIGRATE GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATORS 61 X THE SIGNIFICANT HARM INFLICTED UPON PLAINTIFF 63 CAUSES OF ACTION 65 COUNT I 65 COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT 18 U S C 1030 A AGAINST RUSSIA 65 COUNT II 67 RICO 18 U S C 1962 C AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 67 A B C The Trump Campaign Was The Racketeering Enterprise 67 Alternatively And At The Very Least The Trump Campaign Was Part Of An Association-In-Fact Enterprise 68 RICO Predicate Acts 69 ii Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 5 of 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page D RICO Damages 74 COUNT III 74 RICO CONSPIRACY 18 U S C 1962 D AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 74 COUNT IV 75 WIRETAP ACT 18 U S C 2510-22 AGAINST WIKILEAKS ASSANGE THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND THE TRUMP ASSOCIATES 75 COUNT V 76 STORED COMMUNICATIONS ACT 18 U S C 2701-12 AGAINST RUSSIA 76 COUNT VI 77 DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT 17 U S C 1201 ET SEQ AGAINST RUSSIA 77 COUNT VII 78 MISAPPROPRIATION OF TRADE SECRETS UNDER THE DEFEND TRADE SECRETS ACT 18 U S C 1836 ET SEQ AGAINST RUSSIA WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE 78 COUNT VIII 79 WASHINGTON D C UNIFORM TRADE SECRETS ACT D C CODE ANN 36-401 - 46-410 AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 79 COUNT IX 81 TRESPASS D C COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 81 COUNT X 82 CONVERSION D C COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 82 COUNT XI 83 TRESPASS TO CHATTELS VIRGINIA COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 83 COUNT XII 84 CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT TRESPASS TO CHATTELS VIRGINIA COMMON LAW AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 84 COUNT XIII 85 CONVERSION VIRGINIA COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 85 iii Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 6 of 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page COUNT XIV 86 VIOLATION OF THE VIRGINIA COMPUTER CRIMES ACT VA CODE ANN 18 2-152 1 ET SEQ AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 86 PRAYER FOR RELIEF 87 JURY DEMAND 89 iv Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 7 of 111 Plaintiff the Democratic National Committee DNC brings this Complaint against The Russian Federation Russia Aras Iskenerovich Agalarov Aras Agalarov Emin Araz Agalarov Emin Agalarov Joseph Mifsud Mifsud WikiLeaks Julian Assange Assange Donald J Trump for President Inc the Trump Campaign Donald J Trump Jr Trump Jr Paul J Manafort Jr Manafort Roger J Stone Jr Stone Jared C Kushner Kushner George Papadapoulos Papadapoulos and Richard W Gates III Gates and alleges as follows NATURE OF ACTION I INTRODUCTION 1 No one is above the law In the run-up to the 2016 election Russia mounted a brazen attack on American democracy The opening salvo was a cyberattack on the DNC carried out on American soil In 2015 and 2016 Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC's computers penetrated its phone systems and exfiltrated tens of thousands of documents and emails some of which contained valuable trade secrets Russia then used the stolen information to improve Donald J Trump's Trump chances of winning the 2016 Presidential election because Trump's policies would benefit the Kremlin 2 The Trump Campaign was a willing and active partner in Russia's efforts Through multiple meetings emails and other communications Russian agents told members of the Trump Campaign that their government supported Trump and was prepared to use stolen emails and data to damage his opponent and the Democratic party Rather than report these repeated overtures to the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI the Trump Campaign and its agents gleefully welcomed Russia's help Indeed the Trump Campaign solicited Russia's illegal assistance and maintained secret communications with individuals tied to the Russian government including individuals associated with a Russian intelligence agency responsible for attacking the DNC 1 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 8 of 111 3 Through these communications the Trump Campaign Trump's closest advisors and Russian agents formed an agreement to secure Trump's grip on the Presidency through illegal means Consistent with that agreement Russian agents trespassed onto the DNC's computer network in the United States broke into DNC email accounts collected trade secrets and other private data and disseminated the information at times when it would best suit the Trump Campaign Russia released some of the stolen materials through Guccifer 2 0 a fictitious online persona created by Russian military intelligence officers and released other materials through WikiLeaks 4 As stolen DNC information was strategically released into the public sphere Trump and his associates openly praised the illegal disseminations and encouraged Russia to continue its illegal hacking campaign against the Democratic party 5 In the wake of the 2016 election the Defendants recognized that Trump's grip on the Presidency would be tested if the American public discovered the illegal coordination between his campaign and the Russian government The Defendants therefore worked to cover up their collusion sometimes through a drumbeat of public denials and misstatements and other times through criminal obstruction of justice and witness tampering 6 At the same time Russia continued to commit cybercrimes against Trump's Democratic critics who threatened to derail Trump's policy agenda American intelligence agencies have expressed concern that going forward Russia will continue using cybercrimes to influence American elections 7 In November 2018 dozens of DNC email addresses were targeted in a spear- phishing campaign although there is no evidence that the attack was successful The content of these emails and their timestamps were consistent with a spear-phishing campaign that leading 2 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 9 of 111 cybersecurity experts have tied to Russian intelligence Therefore it is probable that Russian intelligence again attempted to unlawfully infiltrate DNC computers in November 2018 II OVERVIEW OF THE CONSPIRACY 8 Russia's cyberattack on the DNC began in July of 2015 only weeks after Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States And within months allied European intelligence services notified their U S counterparts of suspicious communications between Russian operatives and Trump's associates 9 On or about October 28 2015 while campaigning for President Trump signed a letter of intent to develop and license his name to a new real estate project in Moscow--potentially fulfilling a decades-long dream This project was to be financed through a Russian bank under sanction by the United States The deal was brokered by Felix Sater a Russian emigre convicted felon and longtime business partner of Trump In explaining the deal to Michael Cohen Cohen Trump's personal attorney Sater suggested that he would get Russian President Vladimir V Putin Putin to support the project in an effort to boost Trump's electoral hopes I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected I know how to play it and we will get this done Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this I will 10 By early 2016 Trump was well on his way to becoming the favorite to win the GOP nomination and the ties between his campaign and Russia's government were growing 11 In February 2016 retired Lt Gen Michael T Flynn Flynn began serving as an informal foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign Just two months earlier Flynn had been paid by the Russian government-funded propaganda outlet Russia Today RT to attend and speak at its anniversary gala in Moscow where he dined at the same table as Putin 3 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 10 of 111 12 On March 28 2016 Trump hired Manafort who had spent the previous decade working to advance Kremlin interests as his campaign's convention manager Over the next few months Manafort maintained contact with an individual tied to Russian military intelligence and offered to brief a Putin-connected Russian oligarch regarding the Trump Campaign 13 On April 18 2016 Russian intelligence operatives successfully hacked into the DNC's computer network and began planning the staged release of stolen information to influence the 2016 elections Four days later on April 22 2016 Russian intelligence operatives prepared large amounts of data for exfiltration from DNC servers On April 26 2016 Trump's foreign policy advisor Papadopoulos met with a Kremlin-tied agent who informed Papadopoulos that the Russians have dirt on the Democratic presidential nominee in the form of thousands of emails Papadopoulos did not report this information to American law enforcement Rather he reported back to his superiors at the Trump Campaign regarding interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right On April 27 2016--the day after Papadopoulos's meeting--Trump gave his first major foreign policy address where he spoke about improved relations with Russia That evening Papadopoulos flagged the speech for one of his Russian contacts and explained That's the signal to meet 14 By June 1 2016 Russia had stolen thousands of DNC documents and emails including trade secrets On June 3 2016 Russians connected to the Kremlin contacted Donald Trump Jr to offer damaging information about the Democratic presidential nominee as part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump Trump Jr did nothing to alert American law enforcement Rather he expressly embraced the illegal plan responding I love it especially later in the summer 4 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 11 of 111 15 On June 9 2016 Trump Jr Manafort and Kushner met with the Kremlin- connected Russians in Trump Tower Trump and Trump Jr have both told multiple conflicting stories about what happened in the meeting The day after the meeting Russian intelligence officers placed spy software on a DNC backup computer server 16 On June 15 2016 Russian intelligence agents began disseminating to the public a trove of documents stolen from the DNC and other Democratic party targets The agents continued these releases through Election Day in 2016 Some documents were disseminated through Guccifer 2 0 a fictitious persona created by Russian intelligence agents and others were disseminated through WikiLeaks 17 On June 22 2016 WikiLeaks contacted Guccifer 2 0 to request new stolen DNC materials In subsequent exchanges WikiLeaks explained that Trump had a 25 percent chance of defeating the Democratic presidential nominee and suggested that his odds might improve if WikiLeaks could disseminate stolen documents that would create conflict among Democrats during the upcoming Democratic National Convention 18 On July 11 2016 the Trump Campaign intervened to prevent other Republicans from inserting anti-Russian language regarding Ukraine into the GOP platform 19 Between July 14 2016 and July 18 2016 Russian intelligence operatives transmitted stolen DNC documents to WikiLeaks which promised to release them in time to disrupt the Democratic National Convention 20 WikiLeaks delivered on that promise on July 22 2016 three days before the start of the Convention WikiLeaks began disseminating stolen DNC documents including emails and other sensitive proprietary materials to the public The result was chaos--the DNC had to change 5 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 12 of 111 its anticipated speakers and DNC employees were flooded with so many threatening phone calls and emails that it was difficult to use their phones to carry out their plans for the Convention 21 Throughout the summer and fall of 2016 during the height of the Presidential campaign Trump's associates continued to communicate secretly with Russian agents and WikiLeaks who strategically disseminated information stolen from Democratic targets For example in August 2016 Stone began communicating secretly with Russian intelligence operatives and bragged about his contacts with Assange Similarly Gates who served as the Trump Campaign's deputy chairman and then liaison to the Republican National Committee maintained secret communications with an individual he knew to be connected to Russian military intelligence 22 In the summer and fall of 2016 Stone revealed information that he could not have had unless he were communicating with WikiLeaks Russian operatives or both about their hacking operations in the United States For instance in August of 2016 nobody in the public sphere knew that Russia had stolen emails from John Podesta the chairman of Secretary Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign Nevertheless on August 21 2016 Stone predicted that damaging information about Podesta would be released tweeting it will soon be the Podesta's time in the barrel Weeks later WikiLeaks began releasing batches of Podesta's emails on a near-daily basis until Election Day--as Stone had predicted Similarly in mid-September 2016 Stone said that he expected Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks people to drop a payload of new documents on Hillary Clinton on a weekly basis fairly soon And beginning on October 7 2016 WikiLeaks began releasing stolen emails at least once a week--as Stone had predicted 23 In September 2016 Russian intelligence agents illegally gained access to DNC computers hosted on a third-party cloud computing service stole large amounts of the DNC's 6 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 13 of 111 private data and proprietary computer code and exfiltrated the stolen materials to their own cloudbased accounts registered with same service During this same period Russian intelligence agents and Stone discussed highly confidential and strategic information that had been stolen from another Democratic party institution and disseminated to the public 24 Around that time Trump Jr also secretly communicated with WikiLeaks In one exchange WikiLeaks sent Trump Jr a direct message on Twitter with a password to an antiTrump website In exchange for providing the password WikiLeaks asked Trump Jr to have his father retweet a link to WikiLeaks' trove of stolen emails Fifteen minutes later Trump tweeted a message about the media's lack of attention to WikiLeaks On information and belief Assange is the individual who operated the WikiLeaks Twitter handle during this interaction 25 Throughout the fall of 2016 Trump praised the illegal dissemination of documents from the DNC and other Democratic entities at various points making it a central theme of his speeches and rallies Indeed Trump repeatedly praised the illegal disseminations with exclamations such as I love Wikileaks 26 At some point during the runup to the 2016 election Manafort shar ed polling data related to the 2016 presidential campaign with an individual connected to Russian military intelligence This data could have helped Russia assess the most effective ways to interfere in the election including how best to use stolen Democratic party materials to influence voters 27 On November 9 2016 Trump won the Presidency of the United States The reaction in Russia was jubilation with a member of Russia's parliament announcing to his fellow legislators I congratulate you all on this 28 After Trump won the 2016 election the Defendants recognized that Trump's grip on political power would be jeopardized if the American public discovered the illegal coordination 7 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 14 of 111 between Russia and the Trump Campaign The Defendants therefore dedicated their criminal enterprise to concealing their collusion sometimes by lying to the American public and other times through criminal obstruction of justice 29 For example just two days after the 2016 election Trump Campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks falsely told the Associated Press that the Trump Campaign had no communications with any foreign entity during the campaign Never happened There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign 30 Moreover Stone Kushner Trump Jr Corsi and Manafort lied to or misled the Special Counsel the FBI and Congressional committees tasked with investigating Russian interference in the American election Papadopoulos similarly lied to the FBI to cover up his conversations with Mifsud Both Papadopoulos and Corsi destroyed physical evidence documenting their conversations with coconspirators and Stone intimidated a witness who threatened to contradict his narrative about his communications with WikiLeaks 31 Meanwhile Russia committed fresh cybercrimes in the runup to the 2018 midterm elections For instance in August 2017 Russia attempted to hack into the Senate computer network of a Democratic Senator--a longtime critic of Trump Russia and WikiLeaks--and the networks of two other midterm candidates 32 Since the 2016 election U S intelligence and law enforcement agencies have repeatedly emphasized the continuing nature of the threat of Russian interference in U S elections For example in August 2018 senior U S national security and intelligence officials announced that Russia was continuing its illicit interference in domestic politics including through social media disinformation campaigns attempts to hack political targets and infiltrate the country's electoral infrastructure Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats characterized the threat of 8 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 15 of 111 continued Russian interference as real and continuing and FBI Director Chris Wray added that t his threat is not going away 33 In November 2018 dozens of DNC email addresses were targeted in a spear- phishing campaign although there is no evidence that the attack was successful The content of these emails and their timestamps were consistent with a spear-phishing campaign that leading cybersecurity experts have tied to Russian intelligence Therefore it is probable that Russian intelligence again attempted to unlawfully infiltrate DNC computers in November 2018 34 The Defendants' conspiracy constitutes an act of previously unimaginable treachery the campaign of the presidential nominee of a major party in league with a hostile foreign power to bolster its own chance to win the Presidency In carrying out their conspiratorial objective the Defendants disseminated documents and data stolen from the DNC in violation of the laws of the United States as well as the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia Under the laws of this nation Russia and its co-conspirators must answer for their actions III DAMAGES TO THE DNC 35 The illegal conspiracy inflicted profound damage upon the DNC Defendants undermined the DNC's ability to communicate the party's values and vision to the American electorate sowed discord within the Democratic party at a time when party unity was essential to electoral success and seriously compromised the DNC's internal and external communications 36 Additionally during its breaches of the DNC's servers Russia stole highly confidential and proprietary data including information concerning the ways in which the DNC analyzed its data developed its strategies and approached decisions in its efforts to win the 2016 election 9 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 16 of 111 37 Russia also stole proprietary computer code that DNC computer engineers spent many hours developing The DNC derived significant economic value from keeping that computer code secret until it was taken by Russian agents 38 At the same time Defendants' conduct resulted in a dramatic drop in donations to the DNC The dissemination of hacked information heightened donors' concerns that confidential information disclosed through their contributions might be publicly disseminated 39 The DNC also paid more than a million dollars to repair and remediate electronic equipment and to hire staff and consultants to address the cyber-security fallout from the hacking of the DNC's computer systems and dissemination of DNC documents and data The DNC specifically paid consultants to assess and remediate the damage from the Russian hacking activity 40 Finally because the releases included personal and in some cases protected information about DNC employees some DNC employees were exposed to harassment and death threats One representative email said I hope all your children get raped and murdered I hope your family knows nothing but suffering torture and death Understandably this harassment impaired the employees' ability to function effectively in their jobs 41 While no suit can ever fully redress the harm that Defendants' illegal conduct exacted the DNC brings this lawsuit to seek the full measure of relief afforded by the laws of the United States Accordingly Plaintiff brings claims under the statutes and common law discussed herein Plaintiff is entitled to relief from every member of Defendants' illegal scheme JURISDICTION AND VENUE 42 This Court has federal question jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U S C 1331 because this action arises under 18 U S C 1030 the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 18 U S C 196168 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act 18 U S C 2701-11 the Stored Communications Act 28 U S C 2510-22 commonly referred to as the Federal Wiretap Act 10 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 17 of 111 Pub L No 114-152 130 Stat 376 the Defend Trade Secrets Act codified in scattered sections of 18 U S C and 28 U S C and 17 U S C 1201 et seq the Digital Millennium Copyright Act This Court has supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff's state law claims pursuant to 28 U S C 1367 b 43 This Court has jurisdiction over the claims against Russia pursuant to 28 U S C 1330 because Russia is a foreign state See 28 U S C 1603 a 44 Russia is not entitled to sovereign immunity because the DNC's claims arise out of Russia's trespass on the DNC's private servers and conversion of the DNC's property-- tortious acts committed in the United States See 28 U S C 1605 a 5 In addition Russia stole trade secrets a form of commercial activity undertaken in and directly affecting the United States See id 1605 a 2 Finally Russia purchased computer servers in the United States and made other payments in furtherance of hacking activity another form of commercial activity undertaken in and directly affecting the United States 45 Venue is proper in this Court under 28 U S C 1391 b 2 because a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claims occurred in New York City NY The Trump Campaign is headquartered at 725 Fifth Avenue New York City NY 10022 Trump Jr resides in New York City NY and a substantial number of the meetings and interactions made in furtherance of the conspiracy at issue were located in New York City NY 46 Venue is proper for the claims arising under RICO pursuant to 18 U S C 1965 a because Defendants reside are found have agents or transact affairs in New York City NY PARTIES 47 The DNC Plaintiff DNC registered with the Federal Election Commission as DNC Services Corp Dem Nat'l Committee is a national committee as that term is defined by and used in 52 U S C 30101 dedicated to electing local state and national candidates--including 11 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 18 of 111 presidential candidates--of the Democratic Party to public office To accomplish its mission the DNC among other things works closely with Democratic public officials and assists state parties and candidates by contributing money making expenditures on their behalves and providing active support through the development of programs benefiting Democratic candidates The DNC also plans the Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention and promotes the Democratic Party's platform The DNC regularly conducts its business via email housed on secured servers It also regularly creates and maintains copyrighted materials on its servers as well as confidential proprietary documents related to campaigns fundraising and campaign strategy that are the DNC's trade secrets Additionally the DNC's servers contain valuable proprietary computer code written by DNC employees 48 Russia Defendant Russia is a foreign state as defined under the laws of the United States Russia's military intelligence agency--the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation GRU --participated in many of the events described below GRU Unit 26165 located at 20 Komsomolskiy Prospekt in Moscow Russia was primarily responsible for the cyberattacks on the DNC in 2016 And GRU Unit 74455 located at 22 Khirova Street Khimki Moscow helped disseminate of stolen DNC information through fictitious online personas One of these fictitious online personas-- Guccifer 2 0 --publicly took responsibility for the hacks on the DNC but falsely claimed to be a Romanian hacker with no relationship with Russia Upon information and belief Guccifer 2 0 claimed to be Romanian to hide Russia's role in cyberattacks on the DNC Guccifer 2 0 disseminated thousands of stolen documents and emails through both a GRU-operated website and through a website operated by WikiLeaks 49 At least ten GRU officers collectively the GRU Operatives participated in the theft and dissemination of DNC documents and data 12 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 19 of 111 a Viktor Borisovich Netyksho Netyksho was the Russian military officer in command of GRU Unit 26165 in 2016 That unit is located at 20 Komsomolskiy Prospekt Moscow Russia Unit 26165 was primarily responsible for the hacking the DNC's servers and cloud computing service b Boris Alekseyevich Antonov Antonov was a Major in the Russian military in 2016 That year Antonov was the head of a department within Unit 26165 that was dedicated to computer intrusion activity Antonov supervised other GRU officers who hacked the DNC's servers and cloud computing service c Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin Badin was a the Assistant Head of Antonov's department within Unit 26165 in 2016 Badin worked with Antonov to supervise other GRU officers who hacked the DNC's servers and cloud computing service d Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov Yermakov was a Russian military officer assigned to Antonov's department within Unit 26165 in 2016 In or around May 2016 Yermakov participated in an operation to hack a DNC email server and steal DNC emails e Sergey Aleksandrovich Morgachev Morgachev was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian military assigned to Unit 26165 in 2016 Morgachev oversaw a department within Unit 26165 that developed and managed malware i e software that damages disables or spies upon computer systems Morgachev supervised the GRU officers who placed and monitored malware including a proprietary GRU tool called X-Agent on the DNC's computer network f Nikolay Yuryevich Kozachek Kozachek was a Lieutenant Captain in the Russian military assigned to Morgachev's department within Unit 26165 in 2016 In or 13 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 20 of 111 around April 2016 Kozachek developed customized and monitored the X-Agent malware used on the DNC's computer network g Pavel Vyacheslavovich Yershov Yershov was a Russian military officer assigned to Morgachev's department within Unit 26165 in 2016 Yershov helped Kozachek and other GRU officers test and customize X-Agent malware before it was placed on the DNC's network h Artem Andreyevich Malyshev Malyshev was a Second Lieutenant in the Russian military assigned to Morgachev's department within Unit 26165 in 2016 In or around 2016 Malyshev monitored the X-Agent malware on the DNC's computer network i Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk Osadchuk was a Colonel in the Russian military and the commanding officer of GRU Unit 74455 in 2016 That unit is located at 22 Kirova Street Khimki Moscow Unit 74455 helped release stolen DNC materials through the online persona Guccifer 2 0 j Aleksey Aleksandrovich Potemkin Potemkin was an officer in the Russian military assigned to Unit 74455 in 2016 Potemkin supervised a department within Unit 74455 that created computer infrastructure and social media accounts that were used in the dissemination of stolen DNC materials through Guccifer 2 0 50 Aras Agalarov Defendant Aras Agalarov is an Azeri-born oligarch in Russia who is a close ally of Putin Trump worked with Aras Agalarov who served as a liaison between Trump and Putin to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013 for which Aras Agalarov paid Trump millions of dollars Trump and Aras Agalarov also agreed on another deal to explore real estate opportunities in Russia together Aras Agalarov reportedly has land reserved in Russia for a Trump-branded real estate development 14 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 21 of 111 51 Emin Agalarov Defendant Emin Agalarov is Aras Agalarov's son Emin Agalarov is a pop singer and executive at the family's real estate company He established a close relationship with the Trumps over the course of their partnership on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant and was closely involved in negotiations with Trump and Trump Jr on a deal to build a Trump-branded real estate development in Moscow Like his father Emin Agalarov remained in contact with Trump and Trump Jr after 2013 and into the 2016 campaign The Agalarovs figure prominently in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting described below 52 Mifsud Defendant Mifsud is an academic who upon information and belief worked in several positions for the government of Malta Mifsud apparently had affiliations with a variety of educational organizations and institutions in the United Kingdom and Malta Upon information and belief Mifsud has substantial connections to the Russian government and acted as a de facto agent of the Russian government in his contacts with Papadopoulos in 2016 53 Assange Defendant Assange is the founder and publisher of WikiLeaks He is a citizen of Australia and resides in the embassy of the Government of Ecuador in London England Assange has exhibited support for the Russian government and has hosted a talk show on RT a television propaganda outlet funded by the Russian government Upon information and belief Assange was the only individual who used WikiLeaks' Twitter handle in 2016 54 WikiLeaks Defendant WikiLeaks is an international organization of unknown structure that operates a website WikiLeaks org on which it publishes leaked or stolen confidential and classified information Its maintains a post office box in the United States--P O Box 701 San Mateo CA 94401--and a mailbox at the University of Melbourne in Victoria Australia but it is not clear whether WikiLeaks uses or conducts business through those mailboxes 15 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 22 of 111 55 The Trump Campaign Defendant Trump Campaign is an American not-for-profit corporation formed and registered in Virginia on June 17 2015 to support Trump's candidacy for President of the United States The Trump Campaign is incorporated under the laws of Virginia and has or had an office at 675 N Washington St Alexandria VA 22314 Its principal place of business is Trump Tower 725 Fifth Avenue New York City NY 10022 From June 2015 to June 2016 Corey Lewandowski was Campaign Manager of the Trump Campaign From March 2016 to May 2016 Manafort was Convention Manager of the Trump Campaign and from May 2016 to August 2016 he was Campaign Chairman of the Trump Campaign From June 2016 to August 2016 Gates was Deputy Campaign Chairman and from August 2016 to November 2016 he was the campaign's liaison to the Republican National Committee Multiple senior members of the Trump Campaign are reported to have long-time ties to Russia and to have engaged in frequent communication with individuals tied to the Russian government during the 2016 campaign cycle 56 Trump Jr Defendant Trump Jr is Trump's oldest son From at least June 16 2015 until November 8 2016 when Trump was a Republican candidate for president Trump Jr was a close political advisor to his father Trump Jr currently works as Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization the business organization that was run by Trump before his inauguration Trump Jr resides in New York City New York 57 Manafort Defendant Manafort is a long-time Republican political operative who was Convention Manager of the Trump Campaign from March 2016 to May 2016 and Campaign Chairman of the Trump Campaign from May 2016 to August 2016 when he resigned amid reports of his work with the formerly pro-Russian government in Ukraine In September 2018 Manafort pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy against the United States encompassing charges of money laundering tax fraud failure to register as a foreign agent and other criminal violations 16 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 23 of 111 related to his work for the pro-Russian government in Ukraine Manafort is currently in federal custody at the William G Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria Virginia 58 Stone Defendant Stone is Trump's long-time confidant F ew people go as far back as Trump and Stone and Stone has nurtured the dream of a Trump presidential run for 30 years 1 Stone also has a long history with Manafort Manafort helped run Stone's campaign for national chairman of the Young Republicans in 1977 and the two co-founded a consulting firm--Black Manafort Stone and Kelly--in the 1980s In 2007 Stone worked on the parliamentary campaign of a Ukrainian candidate who formed a coalition with pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych whose closest political advisor was Manafort Upon information and belief Stone served as an informal adviser to Trump and remained in contact with him and other senior officials in the Trump Campaign throughout the 2016 election In a series of emails sent on October 3-4 2016 Stone held himself out to senior members of the Trump campaign as a conduit to WikiLeaks Stone resides in Florida 59 Kushner Defendant Kushner is Trump's son-in-law and was a senior advisor to and one of the key decision-makers for the Trump Campaign In June 2016 Kushner assumed responsibility for the campaign's data-driven efforts setting up a 100-person data hub in San Antonio Texas and hiring Cambridge Analytica a social media and analytics firm to help his father-in-law's campaign Kushner resides in Washington D C 60 Papadopoulos Defendant Papadopoulos was one of the earliest foreign policy advisors to the Trump campaign He became a foreign policy adviser to the Trump Campaign in March 2016 Papadopoulos was in frequent contact with the Trump Campaign's most senior officials including Manafort and Gates in the summer and fall of 2016 He resides in Chicago 17 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 24 of 111 Illinois On October 5 2017 Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to a federal agent about his contacts with individuals connected to the Russian government 61 Gates Defendant Gates is a longtime employee and business partner of Manafort Between 2006 and 2015 Gates was closely involved in Manafort's work for the former proRussian regime in Ukraine and its successor political party On February 23 2018 Gates pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of making a false statement to a federal agent both related to his work with Manafort for the pro-Russian government in Ukraine Gates resides in Richmond VA 62 The Defendants conspired with other individuals known and unknown to carry out their criminal objectives Among their co-conspirators was Jerome Corsi Corsi GENERAL ALLEGATIONS IV SEVERAL DEFENDANTS' PRE-EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH RUSSIA AND RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS PROVIDED FERTILE GROUND FOR A CONSPIRACY 63 Trump several Trump Associates and Assange's long-standing personal professional and financial ties to Russia and numerous individuals closely linked to the Russian government provided fertile ground for a conspiracy between Defendants to interfere in the 2016 elections 64 Trump's Business Connections to Russia As early as the 1980s the Soviet Union paid for Trump to travel to Moscow to discuss a potential development project--a pattern which continued into the 1990s and 2000s 2 In the mid-1990s Trump negotiated with Russian government officials over potential real estate developments in Moscow 3 Beginning in 2003 Trump Associates refers to the Trump advisors and confidants named as Defendants herein Trump Jr Manafort Kushner Stone and Papadopoulos 18 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 25 of 111 Trump engaged in multiple real estate deals with the Bayrock Group a firm founded and run by Soviet emigres who reportedly had close ties to the Russian government and Russian organized crime 4 In 2004 Trump negotiated with the Deputy Mayor of Moscow over a potential real estate development 5 In the mid-2000s Trump partnered with wealthy Russian-Canadian businessmen to develop real estate in Toronto 6 And in 2006 Trump contracted with the Russian Standard Corporation a Moscow-based entity that owns and operates the Miss Russia beauty pageant to allow the winner of the pageant to compete in Trump's Miss Universe pageant an action that had not been taken since at least 2002 7 In 2008 Trump sold a Palm Beach Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch for a $54 million profit 8 In 2013 Trump established a business relationship with Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov a close ally of Putin to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Russia and work on plans to develop a Trump-branded project in Moscow 9 Trump's efforts to develop real estate in Russia continued into May of 2016--several months into Trump's presidential campaign 10 And throughout this 30-year history Trump sought out wealthy Russian buyers for his condominiums in the United States and abroad 11 65 As Trump Jr explained the Trump Organization s aw a lot of money pouring in from Russia and Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets 12 Trump's son Eric Trump has reportedly stated that substantial funding for Trump's golf courses also comes from Russian investors 13 66 Manafort and Gates' Ukrainian Connections From 2004 until at least 2015 Manafort was an advisor to the Russian-allied former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych Yanukovych and his Kremlin-allied Party of Regions as well as its successor the Opposition Bloc 14 In 2012 Manafort allegedly helped the Ukrainian party secretly route at least $2 2 million in payments to two prominent Washington lobbying firms 15 Manafort's ties to Yanukovych and 19 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 26 of 111 Ukraine are so deep that his own daughter has stated that the money we have is blood money 16 After repeatedly denying that he had ever worked for the Ukrainian government on June 27 2017 Manafort retroactively registered as a foreign agent and reported $17 1 million in payments from Yanukovych's party between 2012 and 2014 17 In September 2018 Manafort pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy against the United States encompassing charges of money laundering tax fraud failure to register as a foreign agent and other criminal violations related to his work for the pro-Russian government in Ukraine 18 According to the U S government Manafort's work in Ukraine was backed by Putin-tied oligarch Oleg Deripaska Deripaska 19 Additional financial records indicate that Manafort was in debt to Deripaska by as much as $17 million prior to joining the Trump Campaign 20 67 Manafort also employed Konstantin Kilimnik Kilimnik as his close aide Kilimnik served as a linguist in the Russian army and reportedly learned to speak fluent English from Russian military intelligence i e the GRU when he worked for a nonprofit in the 1990s he was known around the office as the guy from the GRU 21 The FBI believes that Kilimnik maintained ties to Russian intelligence during the 2016 U S presidential campaign 22 Kilimnik was in communication with both Manafort and Gates while they were serving in the two most senior positions in the Trump Campaign and acted as a middleman between them and Deripaska 23 On June 8 2018 Kilimnik was indicted for obstruction of justice related to Manafort's criminal charges 24 68 Assange's Longstanding Ties to Russia Assange has long exhibited support for the Russian government In 2010 Assange tried to obtain a Russian visa to escape extradition to Sweden where he faced sexual assault charges He used Israel Shamir a Russian-born writer who has been described as a fringe intellectual to arrange the visa During a January 2011 interview 20 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 27 of 111 with a Moscow-based radio station Shamir said he'd personally brokered a Russian visa for Assange but that it had come too late to rescue Assange from the sex crimes investigation Russia would be one of those places where he Assange and his organization WikiLeaks would be comfortable operating Shamir stated 25 Asked if Assange had friends in the Kremlin Shamir smiled and said Let's hope that's the case 26 In 2012 Assange hosted a talk show on RT a television propaganda outlet funded by the Russian government 69 Assange's alliance with the Russian government continues to this day In late 2017 Russian diplomats met secretly with a close confidant of Assange to assess whether they could help him flee to Russia A tentative plan was devised that would have seen Assange smuggled out of Ecuador's London embassy in a diplomatic vehicle The plan which was provisionally scheduled to be executed on Christmas Eve 2017 was abandoned after it was deemed too risky According to news reports four separate sources confirmed the Kremlin was willing to support the plan 27 V THE COMMON PURPOSE SECURE TRUMP'S GRIP ON THE PRESIDENCY THROUGH ILLEGAL MEANS 70 The common purpose of the Defendants' conspiracy was to secure Trump's grip on the Presidency through illegal means The Defendants first pursued this goal by bolstering Trump's campaign for President injuring the DNC and harming the Democratic party's chances for success in the 2016 presidential election After the election Defendants worked toward their mutual goal of keeping Trump in power though 2024 by covering up their collusion and committing cybercrimes against Democrats who opposed Trump's agenda The Defendants pursued their common purpose for multiple well-documented reasons 71 In December 2011 massive protests broke out in Russia in response to allegations of vote rigging and election fraud in the Russian parliamentary elections Thousands of Russians 21 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 28 of 111 took to the streets to protest the victory of then-Prime Minister Putin's political party in one of Russia's largest protests since the fall of the U S S R 28 72 Concerned about maintaining power and exerting control Putin lashed out blaming the protests on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Putin asserted that Secretary Clinton had set the tone for some of our actors in the country and gave the signal 29 And he accused her of ordering the opposition movement into action They heard this and with the support of the U S State Department began active work 30 73 At the same time Trump left no doubt as to his views on Russia Prior to the 2016 campaign he spent nearly a decade espousing pro-Russian and pro-Putin views praising Putin as doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia 2007 31 stating that he really like d Vladimir Putin and respect ed him He does his work well Much better than our Bush 2008 32 and characterizing Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea as so smart And he Putin really goes step by step by step and you have to give him a lot of credit 2014 33 74 Despite the obvious political risks of associating himself with a foreign despot Trump continued to make laudatory statements about Putin well into the presidential primary season He said that he would have a great relationship with Putin 34 and that it was a great honor to be so nicely complimented by Putin who was so highly respected within his own country and beyond 35 75 Further Trump's statements--as well as the pro-Russian entourage with which he surrounded himself--left little doubt that Trump if elected president would adopt policies that favored Russia and Putin even if those policies conflicted with longstanding U S foreign policy and the best interests of the United States Trump called NATO obsolete and threatened to renege on U S treaty obligations 36 argued that the U S should not counteract Russia's attempts to be a 22 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 29 of 111 global power supported the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union while noting that it would probably benefit Putin 37 and opposed U S sanctions for Russia's annexation of Crimea saying The people of Crimea from what I've heard would rather be with Russia than where they were 38 76 In July 2018 Putin confirmed that he had wanted Trump to win the 2016 presidential election because he believed Trump's policies would be more favorable to the Kremlin 39 77 Upon information and belief Mifsud shared the conspirators' common purpose because he wanted to advance Russia's interests and as noted above Russia wanted to secure Trump's grip on the Presidency 78 Assange and WikiLeaks also shared the Conspirators' common purpose Assange had a long of history conflicts with Secretary Clinton and Assange publicly stated that his policy disagreements with Clinton would make her presidency far more problematic than a Trump presidency 40 In private messages sent to GRU operatives WikiLeaks confirmed its goal of harming Secretary Clinton's candidacy and disrupting the Democratic party's chances of victory in the 2016 presidential election 41 Upon information and belief Assange drafted those messages and relayed them through WikiLeaks In fact upon information and belief Assange is the only individual who uses WikiLeaks' Twitter handle 42 79 Upon information and belief Assange and WikiLeaks worked to secure Trump's grip on the Presidency even after the 2016 election because of Trump's favorable view of WikiLeaks and because of the Russian government's inclination to assist Assange with asylum In fact reports have indicated that Russia even participated in a plan to facilitate Assange's escape from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and fly him to Russia 23 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 30 of 111 80 Upon information and belief the Agalarovs and the Trump Associates shared the conspirators' common purpose because they stood to benefit financially and professionally from a Trump Presidency By using their relationship with the Trump family to facilitate the Russian government's coordination with the Trump campaign the Agalarovs curried favor with Russian officials Finally the Trump Campaign's stated goal was to get Trump elected both in 2016 and 2020 VI THE CONSPIRACY TO DISSEMINATE STOLEN DNC DATA TO AID TRUMP 81 In a January 2017 report the IC Report the U S intelligence community concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election the consistent goals of which were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process denigrate Secretary Clinton and harm her electability and potential presidency 43 Further the IC Report concluded In July 2015 Russian intelligence gained access to Democratic National Committee DNC networks and maintained that access until at least June 2016 that b y May the GRU had exfiltrated large volumes of data from the DNC and that the GRU relayed material it acquired from the DNC and senior Democratic officials to WikiLeaks 44 82 This operation to infiltrate the DNC servers and disseminate stolen DNC material was carried out in the United States Russian operatives trespassed onto computer servers located in Virginia and Washington D C and stole information located on those servers The operation was also carried out in concert with Assange and WikiLeaks and with the active support and approval of the Trump Campaign and the Trump Associates 83 The conspirators worked in tandem to accomplish their goal Russia's intelligence services illegally hacked into the DNC's computer systems and email server in order to steal and publish trade secrets including confidential proprietary documents related to campaigns 24 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 31 of 111 fundraising and campaign strategy Russian intelligence services then disseminated the stolen confidential materials through GRU-created websites as well as WikiLeaks and Assange who were actively supported by the Trump Campaign and Trump Associates as they released and disclosed the information to the American public at a time and in a manner that served their common goals The disclosures to the American electorate were undertaken with the purpose and had the effect of creating dissention within the Democratic party directing media coverage away from stories critical of Trump and generally promoting Trump's presidential candidacy 45 A Trump Announces His Candidacy For President And Russia Begins Its Attack On The DNC's Computer Systems 84 On June 16 2015 Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States in the lobby of Trump Tower By the next month Russia had undertaken its cyberattack on the DNC 46 The hacks by Russian intelligence were directed at systems in Virginia and Washington D C that contained some of the DNC's most sensitive strategic and operational data Later the disclosure of this sensitive data not only significantly disrupted the election strategy implemented by the DNC but also interfered directly with the DNC's ability to effectively communicate with and persuade voters to raise critical funds for its organization and to support Democratic campaigns--all activities that occurred in interstate commerce B European Allies Sound The Alarm To U S Intelligence Regarding Communications Between Russians And Trump Associates 85 In late 2015 European intelligence agencies began reporting suspicious communications between persons associated with the Trump Campaign and Russian operatives including suspected Russian intelligence agents to U S authorities These reports continued over the next year 25 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 32 of 111 C While Campaigning For President Trump Signs A Letter Of Intent To Build Trump Tower Moscow 86 In the fall of 2015 as Trump campaigned for President members of the Trump Organization were actively negotiating with Russians to build a Trump-branded real estate project in Moscow--a longtime goal of Trump's 47 On or about October 28 2015 Trump signed a letter of intent to license his name for the project 48 87 The deal was brokered by Felix Sater a Russian emigre convicted felon and longtime business associate of the Trump Organization 49 The funding for the project was to be provided by Vneshtorgbank or VTB--a Russian bank against which the United States Treasury has leveled sanctions 50 88 On November 3 2015 Sater explained to Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen how this project would promote Trump's presidential aspirations Michael I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putins sic private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected We both know no one else knows how to pull this off without stupidity or greed getting in the way I know how to play it and we will get this done Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it I will get all of Putins sic team to buy in on this I will manage this process 51 D The Trump Campaign Establishes Further Ties To Russia And Russian Intelligence Agents 89 From the winter of 2016 through the 2016 presidential election high-level and other advisers to the Trump Campaign including Manafort Gates Kushner Papadopoulos Stone Cohen and others were in frequent contact with individuals connected to Russian intelligence and the Russian government 52 90 In February 2016 Flynn began serving as an informal foreign policy advisor to the Trump Campaign Flynn had ties to both the GRU and Putin In 2013 when Flynn was serving as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency he was the first U S officer who was ever allowed 26 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 33 of 111 inside GRU headquarters 53 While he was there he lectured GRU officers about leadership When he returned to the United States he wanted to make a second visit to the GRU but he could not get permission from the relevant authorities Moreover on December 10 2015 just a few months before he joined the Trump Campaign Flynn was paid by the Russian government-funded propaganda outlet RT to attend and speak at its anniversary gala in Moscow where he dined next to Putin 54 91 In March 2016 the Trump Campaign also hired Manafort As noted above Manafort was millions of dollars in debt to Deripaska at the time He was also broke 55 Yet he agreed to work for the Trump Campaign for free A few days after he joined the Trump Campaign Manafort emailed Kilimnik to discuss how they could use Manafort's media coverage to settle his debt with Deripaska 56 Manafort had multiple discussions with Kilimnik in the runup to the 2016 election including one in which Manafort shar ed polling data related to the 2016 presidential campaign 57 This data could have helped Russia assess the most effective ways to interfere in the election for instance by helping it determine how best to utilize information stolen from the DNC 92 In or around March 2016 Papadopoulos was also notified that he would become a foreign policy adviser to the Trump Campaign and that a principal foreign policy focus of the Trump Campaign was an improved relationship with Russia 58 On March 21 2016 Trump announced that Papadopoulos would be among the first members of the Trump Campaign's foreign policy team 59 93 Thereafter Papadopoulos frequently communicated with a professor based in London named Joseph Mifsud In his guilty plea Papadopoulos attested that he understood that the professor had substantial connections to Russian government officials 60 Further 27 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 34 of 111 Papadopoulos admitted that he repeatedly sought to use the professor's Russian connections in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials 61 94 According to Papadopoulos' Statement of Offense Mifsud was initially uninterested in Papadopoulos but appeared to take great interest when Papadopoulos was publicly named to Trump's foreign policy team As a result a On March 14 2016 Mifsud met with Papadopoulos in Italy 62 b On March 24 2016 Mifsud met again with Papadopoulos this time bringing along a Russian national who was introduced as a relative of Putin 63 c On April 18 2016 Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to an individual he said had connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Papadopoulos proceeded to have multiple Skype conversations with this individual in which they discussed setting up a meeting between Russian officials and the Trump campaign 64 d On April 26 2016 Mifsud again met with Papadopoulos in London At this meeting Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians had thousands of emails that could harm Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign 65 Papadopoulos understood that Mifsud had substantial connections to Russian government officials and had met with some of those officials in Moscow immediately prior to telling Papadopoulos about the 'thousands of emails ' 66 95 Mifsud later acknowledged his contacts with Papadopoulos stating that he met with him three or four times and helped connect him to official and unofficial sources 96 The Trump Campaign was aware of and encouraged Papadopoulos's meetings with his Russian contacts After meeting with Mifsud and the Russian national on March 24 2016 Papadopoulos reported back to the Trump Campaign that his conversation was to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U S -Russia ties under President Trump 67 Informed of this meeting Trump campaign National Co-Chairman Sam Clovis responded that he would work it through the campaign and added Great work 68 97 Papadopoulos excitedly emailed a Trump Campaign official on April 27 2016 Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right He 28 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 35 of 111 also emailed Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski reiterating Russia's interest in hosting Trump In May 2016 Papadopoulos sent Manafort an email stating that Russia has been eager to meet Mr Trump for quite some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss Manafort forwarded the email to Gates writing Lets discuss We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips referring to Trump and added i t should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal 69 98 Also on April 27 2016--the day after Papadopoulos's fourth meeting with Mifsud--Trump gave his first major foreign policy address where he said I believe an easing of tensions and improved relations with Russia from a position of strength only is possible absolutely possible Common sense says this cycle this horrible cycle of hostility must end and ideally will end soon 70 That evening Papadopoulos flagged the speech for one of his Russian contacts and explained That's the signal to meet 71 99 In May 2016 Papadopoulos confided to an Australian diplomat that Russia had politically damaging information on Secretary Clinton and the diplomat reported this to U S authorities 72 This report prompted the FBI to launch its counterintelligence investigation into contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign 73 100 Over the next three months Papadopoulos continued to have communications with Russian nationals and continued to report those communications to Trump Campaign officials who encouraged him to set up an off-the-record meeting with Russian officials on behalf of the campaign 74 Papadopoulos later pleaded guilty to lying about these communications with Russian nationals 75 E Russia Steals A Massive Trove Of Documents From The DNC 101 On April 18 2016--the date of Papadopoulos's third meeting with Mifsud--Russia launched a pervasive cyberattack on DNC servers located in Virginia and Washington D C This 29 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 36 of 111 attack was carried out by the GRU with the help of the GRU Operatives Upon information and belief the GRU Operatives were carrying out military orders that they could not disobey The attackers targeted the DNC's research department document repositories information technology department and other departments 76 102 During that time the DNC worked to keep the valuable and sensitive data on its servers secret by among other things employing a firewall to limit access to its computers and requiring two-factor authentication for users who attempted to access the servers from remote locations In addition the DNC periodically monitored its user accounts and imposed password requirements concerning passwords' age length and complexity 103 Nevertheless the GRU breached the DNC's cyberdefenses and with the help of the GRU Operatives placed malware on the DNC network including proprietary malware known as X-Agent 77 Upon information and belief the GRU Operatives monitored this malware in realtime and collected data from DNC computers including keylogs and screenshots 104 On April 22 2016 the GRU staged several gigabytes of DNC data located on the DNC's servers for unauthorized and surreptitious exfiltration i e theft The GRU then used malware known as X-Tunnel to exfiltrate this stolen DNC data to a GRU-leased computer located in Illinois 78 105 Between April and June of 2016 the GRU gained access to at least 33 DNC computers and the DNC's email server By June 2016 Russia had stolen thousands of emails and documents containing sensitive data from the DNC including donor information financial and economic information proprietary opposition research compiled from multiple sources information regarding planned political activities and thousands of private confidential emails 30 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 37 of 111 106 Some of the stolen documents were compilations of public and private information which derived substantial value from their amalgamation and organization The documents derived economic value from the fact of their secrecy if the data they contained were made public it would reveal critical insights into the DNC's political financial and voter engagement strategies 107 The DNC used this data in interstate commerce by among other things fundraising and organizing events 108 The GRU could have derived significant economic value from the theft of the DNC's data by among other possibilities selling the data to the highest bidder F The DNC Discovers The Hack And Hires CrowdStrike 109 On April 28 2016 the DNC's information technology department detected unauthorized users in the DNC's computer network 110 Upon discovering the intrusion the DNC contacted CrowdStrike Services Inc CrowdStrike a cybersecurity technology firm to investigate the attack assess the damage done to the DNC's computers and servers and assist the DNC in its remediation efforts 111 CrowdStrike performed a forensic analysis of the DNC's computer network and servers 112 CrowdStrike also set up a system for monitoring the ongoing attack on Plaintiffs' computer system and to alert the DNC to future attacks 113 In order to remove the unauthorized users from its network the DNC had to decommission more than 140 servers remove and reinstall all software including the operating systems for more than 180 computers and rebuild at least 11 servers G Forensic Evidence Confirms Russia's Attack On The DNC's Network 114 Both CrowdStrike's forensic analysis and the U S Government concluded that the DNC's computer systems had been hacked by two independent sophisticated Russian state31 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 38 of 111 sponsored adversaries both with a nexus to Russia's intelligence services 79 The forensic analysts tracked the hacking activities of these adversaries by assigning them code names Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear which correspond to the more widely used names Advanced Persistent Threat 29 APT 29 and Advanced Persistent Threat 28 APT 28 respectively 80 115 Forensic analysis found evidence that Cozy Bear had infiltrated and remained present in the DNC's network since at least July 27 2015 81 The IC Report similarly concluded that Russian intelligence first gained access to the DNC network in July 2015 CrowdStrike also determined that Cozy Bear used the stolen credentials of user accounts to access the DNC's computer systems 82 116 CrowdStrike determined that the objective of the Cozy Bear actor was to access and collect information from DNC systems that were primarily used for communications The analysis identified Cozy Bear malware in DNC systems providing email email support backup servers voiceover internet protocol and chat 83 117 The U S Government concluded that Cozy Bear was an operative of or associated with Russian intelligence 84 118 The DNC first detected Fancy Bear in its network on April 28 2016 85 The IC Report concluded that Fancy Bear was acting as an agent of the GRU In July 2018 the U S Department of Justice announced the indictment of the GRU Operatives for executing cyberattacks on the DNC in 2016 and disseminating stolen DNC data through WikiLeaks and the GRU-created online persona Guccifer 2 0 86 119 CrowdStrike determined that the GRU's objective was to collect information about the DNC's political and research activities 87 32 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 39 of 111 120 According to the U S government the GRU intentionally deleted logs and computer files to cover their tracks while they maintained an authorized presence within the DNC network and stole DNC data 88 121 On April 22 2016 the GRU staged for exfiltration several gigabytes of data that included opposition research on Donald Trump According to the U S government the GRU later used proprietary malware known as X-Tunnel to move this data outside of the DNC network through encrypted channels to a GRU-leased computer in Illinois On or about April 28 2016 the GRU connected to and tested the same computer located in Illinois 89 122 According to the U S government while hacking the DNC networks the GRU covered its tracks by intentionally deleting logs and computer files For example on or about May 13 2016 the GRU cleared the event logs from a DNC computer 90 123 Between May 25 and June 1 2016 the GRU hacked into the DNC's email server and stole thousands of emails from the accounts of DNC employees 91 124 According to the U S government the GRU exfiltrated DNC documents and GRU operatives posted some of those documents publicly online 92 125 According to an analysis of metadata documents that originally resided on DNC servers were published without permission on a website found at www guccifer2 wordpress com by GRU operatives 126 According to the U S government the GRU transmitted stolen emails to WikiLeaks between July 14 2016 and July 18 2016 after WikiLeaks requested stolen information from the DNC that it could use to harm the Democratic party 93 127 Forensic analysis shows that both Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear used the stolen credentials of user accounts to access the DNC's computer systems 94 33 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 40 of 111 128 In addition forensic analysis showed that the hackers accessed the DNC's Voice- over Internet Protocol VOIP transfers Upon information and belief this access allowed the hackers to monitor voice-based communications such as phone calls and voicemail in realtime 129 On information and belief the hackers conducted real-time surveillance on the DNC network using the X-Agent software Because X-Agent was always on the software captured the contents of communications going to and from the affected computers simultaneously with their transmission 130 In this way the hackers endeavored to intercept and did intercept the contents of emails instant messages and internal text-based chat and voice-based communications while in the DNC servers 131 To carry out their operations the Russian hackers--including the GRU Operatives--purchased servers in the United States registered several domain names and made multiple payments in furtherance of hacking activity 95 H Russians Again Offer To Assist Trump--And Trump Associates Accept The Offer 132 Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination on May 26 2016 A week later Defendants launched a scheme to disseminate information that was damaging to the Democratic party and the DNC 133 On June 3 2016 Aras and Emin Agalarov made an offer of assistance from the Russian government to the Trump Campaign Good morning Emin Defendant Emin Agalarov just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras Defendant Aras Agalarov this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official 34 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 41 of 111 documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin Emphasis added 96 134 Seventeen minutes later Trump Jr responded Thanks Rob I appreciate that I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I will just speak to Emin first Seems we have some time and if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer Emphasis added 97 135 Between June 6 2016 and June 7 2016 Trump Jr and Emin Agalarov exchanged several phone calls and discussed the meeting at which Russians would provide the Trump Campaign with damaging information about the Democratic nominee 98 In between two of those calls Trump Jr received a call from an unknown blocked number 99 136 On June 7 2016 shortly after the meeting between the Russians and Trump Associates was set Trump Jr emailed Great It will likely be Paul Manafort campaign boss my brother in law and me 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor 100 That night Trump announced that he would give a major speech discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons 101 137 Two days later on June 9 2016 the meeting between the Russians and Trump Associates took place The Trump Campaign was represented by Trump's inner-circle Trump Jr Kushner and Manafort Representing Russia's interests were Agalarov publicist Rob Goldstone Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya Veselnitskaya Agalarov business associate Irakyl Kaveladze lobbyist Rinat Akhmestshin and a translator 102 35 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 42 of 111 138 On information and belief Veselnitskaya was closely connected to the Kremlin and had a history of acting as an agent of the Russian government In April 2018 Veselnitskaya called herself an informant for the Russian government and admitted that she had been actively communicating with the office of the Russian Prosecutor General since 2013 103 In January 2019 a federal indictment in an unrelated case further elucidated Veselnitskaya's deep ties to senior Russian government officials detailing her 2014-2015 scheme with a senior Russian prosecutor to obstruct a U S investigation into her client a wealthy Russian businessman 104 139 On the day of the Trump Tower meeting Cohen started making travel plans to meet top Russian officials--possibly including Putin--in St Petersburg regarding the Trump Tower Moscow project He canceled his plans on June 14 2016 the same day the Washington Post revealed the DNC had been hacked by the Russian government 105 140 The day after the Trump Tower meeting the Agalarovs sent Trump an expensive painting as a gift for his upcoming birthday In a note to the Agalarovs Trump thanked them for the gift and their friendship I'm rarely at a loss for words but right now I can only say how much I appreciate your friendship and to thank you for this fantastic gift This is one birthday that I will always remember 106 141 Trump and Trump Jr would later go to great lengths to conceal the meeting and its content For months Trump Jr and others familiar with the June 2016 meeting denied that they had contacts with Russians during the campaign For example in March 2017 when asked whether he had held any meetings with Russians related to the presidential campaign Trump Jr falsely stated Certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way shape or form 107 Months later in July 2017 when confronted with limited information about the June 2016 meeting Trump Jr released a series of false statements that mischaracterized and omitted key facts about the June 36 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 43 of 111 2016 meeting and the email exchange that led to it including the Russians' offer of damaging information about the Democratic presidential nominee and the fact that the email exchange explicitly informed Trump Jr that the Russian government was seeking to help the Trump Campaign According to news reports Trump helped craft the first of these misleading statements after rejecting an initial attempt to fully disclose the nature of the June 2016 meeting 108 142 Manafort also tried to hide the Trump Tower meeting On July 24 2016 Manafort was asked whether there were any ties between Mr Trump you and your campaign and Putin and his regime Manafort replied No there are not That's absurd And you know there's no basis to it 109 I Following The Trump Tower Meeting Russia Continues Its Hacking And Launches A Massive Public Dissemination Of Stolen DNC Documents 143 The day after the Trump Tower meeting GRU agents placed a Linux-based version of the GRU's X-Agent malware programmed to communicate with the GRU-registered domain linuxkrnl net 110 onto a DNC backup server nicknamed Raider Raider was located in Virginia and served the purpose of backing up other DNC servers 144 The DNC discovered the GRU's X-Agent malware on its Raider backup server on October 21 2016 when it detected Raider's attempts to contact the GRU-registered domain linuxkrnl net CrowdStrike performed a forensic analysis of Raider and confirmed that a Linuxbased version of X-Agent programmed to communicate with the GRU was placed on Raider on June 10 2016 Upon information and belief the GRU was unable to exfiltrate any data from Raider because a few hours after it placed malware on Raider the DNC implemented a firewall rule that prevented the server from communicating with computers outside of the DNC network as part of its effort to limit the damage that GRU officers did to the DNC's computer network However later GRU cyberattacks described in detail below were more successful 37 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 44 of 111 145 On June 12 2016 Assange appeared on a British television show and said that WikiLeaks would soon leak materials concerning the Democratic presidential candidate adding WikiLeaks has a very big year ahead 111 146 Two days after this ominous pronouncement the DNC publicly announced that its systems had been hacked by Russian intelligence agencies this was the first public statement that the Russians were interfering in the 2016 election 112 147 On June 15 2016 GRU agents including Osadchuk and Potemkin began using their online persona Guccifer 2 0 to disseminate stolen DNC material both through a GRUoperated website and through WikiLeaks 113 148 The strategic dissemination of DNC documents by the GRU continued unabated through June and early July 2016 including a On June 15 2016 the GRU posted a pdf of a proprietary opposition research report on Trump that the DNC authored in December 2015 114 This report provided an early roadmap for how the Democratic party could approach messaging about Trump and his candidacy Its publication gave the Democrats' opposition access to this roadmap thus significantly reducing its value b On June 21 2016 GRU operatives using the screenname Guccifer 2 0 released a batch of stolen DNC documents about Secretary Clinton one day after Trump fired Corey Lewandowski on June 20 115 c On June 30 2016 GRU operatives using the screenname Guccifer 2 0 released stolen DNC documents to the public including a DNC-authored research report on Republican candidates and Secretary Clinton 116 d On July 6 2016 GRU operatives using the screenname Guccifer 2 0 released stolen DNC documents including confidential DNC strategy documents related to the DNC's counter-convention to the RNC convention 117 This plan lost its value once it became available in the public sphere This was one day after FBI Director James Comey announced that no criminal charges would be brought against Secretary Clinton for maintaining a private email server during her time at the State Department 118 38 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 45 of 111 J WikiLeaks And Russian Intelligence Discuss A Plan To Use Stolen DNC Documents To Disrupt The Democratic National Convention 149 On June 22 2016 WikiLeaks sent GRU operatives using the screenname Guccifer 2 0 a private message asking the operatives to s end any new material stolen from the DNC here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing 119 Shortly thereafter in late June 2016 the GRU Operatives first attempted to send stolen DNC documents to WikiLeaks 150 On July 6 2016 WikiLeaks sent another private message to GRU operatives using the screenname Guccifer 2 0 with additional instructions if you have anything hillary related we want it in the next tweo sic days prefable sic because the DNC Democratic National Convention is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after Guccifer 2 0 responded ok I see WikiLeaks explained its strategy to help Trump and harm the Democratic nominee and party in another message to Guccifer 2 0 we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting 120 In other words WikiLeaks and Russian intelligence agreed to use materials stolen from the DNC to disrupt the Democratic National Convention and prevent members of the Democratic party from rallying around the Democratic nominee 151 On July 14 2016 the GRU Operatives sent WikiLeaks instructions for accessing a trove of stolen DNC documents 121 Four days later WikiLeaks sent the GRU Operatives a message confirming that it had the documents and assuring them that the documents would be released this week 122 K The Trump Campaign Continues Communicating With Russian Agents And Blocks Anti-Russian Language From Being Added To The GOP Platform As 39 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 46 of 111 WikiLeaks And The GRU Finalize Arrangement To Disrupt The Democratic National Convention 152 In early July 2016 Manafort--then chairman of the Trump Campaign--emailed Kilimnik his longtime aide with ties to the GRU offering private briefings on the presidential campaign to Russian oligarch and Putin ally Deripaska 153 Between July 11 2016 and July 15 2016 members of the Trump campaign intervened to prevent the Republican National Committee's foreign policy platform committee from amending the draft platform to include a call for the United States to provide lethal arms to Ukraine to help defend itself against Russia The Trump campaign succeeded in this effort watering down the proposed amendment to support only appropriate assistance to Ukraine 154 As Trump campaign officials worked to block the anti-Russia language from the GOP platform WikiLeaks and the GRU were finalizing an arrangement to release stolen DNC data to disrupt the Democratic National Convention On July 14 2016 Guccifer 2 0 sent WikiLeaks an email with instructions on how to access stolen DNC documents in an online repository On July 18 2016 WikiLeaks confirmed that it had retrieved the 1gb or so archive of stolen DNC documents and would release them this week which would coincide with the beginning of the Democratic National Convention 123 155 After the convention Kilimnik reportedly told associates that he had played a role in the Trump campaign's success at watering down the Ukraine amendment L After The Trump Campaign Blocks Anti-Russia Language From The GOP Platform WikiLeaks Begins Disseminating Stolen DNC Documents 156 On July 22 2016 just three days before the Democratic National Convention WikiLeaks released its first major tranche of stolen DNC materials which included more than 20 000 emails and documents stolen by Russian intelligence agents These documents contained names addresses telephone numbers dates of birth social security numbers passport numbers 40 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 47 of 111 and other identifying information of individuals who had communicated with or donated to the DNC as well Excel Word and other types of files containing the confidential work product of DNC staff The release also included dozens of private voicemail messages to DNC employees 124 Some of the published documents were sensitive trade secrets belonging to the DNC including donor lists and detailed proprietary fundraising strategies based on the DNC's analysis of trends in donation data collected over years 157 The Defendants publicly denied that the documents were released to help Trump secure power On July 24 2016 Trump Jr was asked about suggestions that the July 22 2016 release of stolen DNC emails was part of a Russian plot to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton Despite having been informed via email weeks earlier that there was such a plot Trump Jr responded Well just goes to show you their exact moral compass They'll say anything to be able to win this This is time and time again lie after lie It's disgusting it's so phony 125 158 At the same time Trump and the Trump Campaign openly celebrated this publication of stolen materials and Trump himself encouraged Russia to continue its hacking campaign At a press conference on July 27 2016 after commenting extensively on the materials that were stolen from the DNC servers Trump called on the Russians to continue their hacking Russia if you're listening I hope you're able to find the 30 000 emails that are missing He then predicted great rewards would come to Russia if that occurred stating I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press Let's see if that happens 126 That same day the GRU Operatives attempted--for the first time--to hack email accounts used by Secretary Clinton's personal office 127 41 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 48 of 111 M Trump Associates Secretly Communicate With Russian Agents And WikiLeaks As They Strategically Release Stolen DNC Documents 159 Russia's unauthorized release of DNC documents continued until November 2016 with a critical increase in the volume and damaging nature of these releases as the general election season began 160 From June 2016 to October 2016 the GRU systematically released documents stolen from the DNC on a regular basis 128 Many of the disclosures were timed to divert attention from adverse publicity about the Trump campaign and to obscure positive news about the Clinton campaign and DNC activities--serving the common interests of the Trump Associates Russia and WikiLeaks 161 Beginning in the spring of 2016 Trump's longtime friend and political advisor Roger Stone revealed on multiple occasions that he was in contact with Assange and WikiLeaks as well as Guccifer 2 0 about information in their possession that would be damaging to the Clinton campaign to prominent members of the Democratic Party and to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta 129 Many of these reports from Stone occurred well before it was publicly known that the DNC's computer systems and Podesta's emails had been hacked by the same Russian intelligence entities 130 162 On July 25 2016 Stone who was in frequent contact with senior officials in the Trump Campaign directed his associate Corsi to connect with Assange and WikiLeaks 131 Stone wanted Corsi to gather additional information about the trove of stolen materials that WikiLeaks had received from Russia 132 On August 2 2016 Corsi reported back to Stone explaining that WikiLeaks planned to release the information in October 2016 133 163 Stone also claimed that on August 3 2016 he spoke with Trump134 and dined with his new pal Julian Assange an apparent reference to an online meeting 135 42 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 49 of 111 164 On August 8 2016 speaking to a local Republican Party group in Florida Stone predicted the future disclosure of hacked materials I have actually communicated with Assange I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation but there's no telling what the October surprise may be 136 165 On August 12 2016 Stone said that he believed Assange had emails belonging to Secretary Clinton 137 That same day GRU officers posing as Guccifer 2 0 disseminated another set of stolen documents - this time containing personal information about Democratic candidates 138 Shortly thereafter on August 12 Guccifer 2 0 sent a thank-you note to Stone 139 166 Also on August 12 2016 GRU officers posing as Guccifer 2 0 released documents stolen from other Democratic entities including strategy memos for five House races in Florida 140 These documents were released just days before legislative primaries in the key battleground state of Florida 141 167 On August 14 2016 Stone began secretly communicating with GRU operatives posing as Guccifer 2 0 142 On August 17 2016 one of these operatives tweeted to Stone please tell me if i can help u anyhow it would be a great pleasure to me 143 That same day Trump was briefed by US intelligence agencies that Russia was implicated in the hacking of DNC servers 144 168 In August 2016 about two weeks before Manafort resigned admit reports of improper payments for his pro-Russia political work in Ukraine Manafort and Kilimnik had dinner in New York City during which the two discussed Trump's presidential campaign 145 169 After Manafort resigned Gates Manafort's deputy continued communicating with Kilimnik while serving as a high-ranking member of the Trump campaign Gates like Manafort was aware that Kilimnik was tied to the GRU 146 43 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 50 of 111 170 On August 21 2016 amidst his communications with Russian intelligence and Assange Stone prophesized the future dissemination of Podesta's emails tweeting Trust me it will soon be Podesta's time in the barrel 147 There had been no public disclosure that Podesta's emails had been hacked at that time A few days later on August 30 2016 Stone called Corsi to ask for help creating a cover story to explain how Stone knew about Podesta's emails before WikiLeaks released them 148 171 On September 18 2016 Stone emailed Randy Credico Credico a New York radio personality with a specific document request Please ask Assange for any State or HRC email from August 10 to August 30--particularly on August 20 2011 Credico told Stone that he needed a little bit of time and that he can't ask WikiLeaks and Assange for favors every other day I asked one of his lawyers 149 172 In mid-September 2016 Stone accurately predicted on Boston Herald Radio that he expected Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks people to drop a payload of new documents on Hillary on a weekly basis fairly soon 150 173 By September 20 2016 Trump Jr was secretly communicating with WikiLeaks as well At one point WikiLeaks provided Trump Jr with a password to an anti-Trump political action committee website which Trump Jr later used 151 In exchange WikiLeaks asked Trump Jr to have his father retweet a link to a WikiLeaks website containing stolen Democratic documents 152 Fifteen minutes after WikiLeaks sent this request Trump in fact tweeted Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks So dishonest Rigged system 153 174 On October 1 2016 Stone stated on Twitter Wednesday @HillaryClinton is done #WikiLeaks 154 The following day Stone said on Alex Jones' show An intermediary met 44 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 51 of 111 with him Assange in London recently who is a friend of mine and a friend of his a believer in freedom I am assured that the mother lode is coming Wednesday It wouldn't be an October surprise if I told you what it was but I have reason to believe that it is devastating because people with political judgment who are aware of the subject matter tell me this 155 On October 3 2016 Stone reiterated that he was confident WikiLeaks would continue disseminating hacked materials I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon 156 175 Four days later on October 7 2016--and just one hour after the release of the infamous Access Hollywood recording in which Trump admitted to sexually assaulting women-- WikiLeaks released 2 000 emails stolen from Podesta 157 WikiLeaks continued to release documents stolen from Podesta on a near-daily basis until November 9 2017 - just as Stone had predicted 158 176 On October 13 2016 WikiLeaks issued a statement denying it had any communications with Stone The same day Stone sent WikiLeaks a private Twitter message asking it to rexamine sic the strategy of attacking me in view of Stone's publicly defending wikileaks and Assange against the claim that you are Russian agents 159 N The GRU Reaches Out To Stone About Democratic Party Turnout Models 177 On August 22 2016 GRU operatives transmitted several gigabytes of data stolen from another Democratic party target to a Republican party strategist in Florida The data included voter turnout analyses for Florida and other states 160 178 Between September 7 and September 8 2016 the GOP strategist exchanged private messages with GRU operatives posing as Guccifer 2 0 in which he explained the substantial value of the stolen data he had received from them 161 45 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 52 of 111 179 On September 9 2016 GRU operatives posing as Guccifer 2 0 contacted Stone writing him please tell me if I can help u anyhow and adding it would be a great pleasure to me The operatives then asked Stone for his reaction to the turnout model for the Democrats' entire presidential campaign Stone replied p retty standard 162 O Russia Launches Another Attack On DNC Servers Housing Sensitive And Valuable Trade Secrets 180 On September 20 2016 CrowdStrike's monitoring service discovered that unauthorized users--later discovered to be GRU officers--had accessed the DNC's cloudcomputing service The cloud-computing service housed test applications related to the DNC's analytics The DNC's analytics are its most important valuable and highly confidential tools While the DNC did not detect unauthorized access to its voter file access to these test applications could have provided the GRU with the ability to see how the DNC was evaluating and processing data critical to its principal goal of winning elections Forensic analysis showed that the unauthorized users had stolen the contents of these virtual servers by making exact duplicates snapshots of them and moving those snapshots to other accounts they owned on the same service The GRU stole multiple snapshots of these virtual servers between September 5 2016 and September 22 2016 The U S government later concluded that this cyberattack had been executed by the GRU as part of its broader campaign to damage to the Democratic party 181 In 2016 the DNC used Amazon Web Services AWS an Amazon-owned company that provides cloud computing space for businesses as its data warehouse for storing and analyzing almost all of its data 182 To store and analyze the data the DNC used a software program called Vertica which was run on the AWS servers Vertica is a Hewlett Packard program which the DNC licensed The data stored on Vertica included voter contact information such as the names 46 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 53 of 111 addresses phone numbers and email addresses of voters and notes from the DNC's prior contacts with these voters The DNC also stored digital information on AWS servers Digital information included data about the DNC's online engagement such as DNC email lists the number of times internet users click on DNC advertisements or click rates and the number of times internet users click on links embedded in DNC emails or engagement rates The DNC also used AWS to store volunteer information--such as the list of people who have signed up for DNC-sponsored events and the number of people who attended those events 183 Vertica was used to both store DNC data and organize the data so that DNC computer engineers could access it To use the Vertica data DNC employees could not simply type a plain-English question into the database Instead DNC engineers needed to write lines of computer code that instructed Vertica to search for and display a data set The computer engineers' coded requests for data are called queries 184 When the DNC wanted to access and use the data it collected the DNC described the information it wanted to retrieve and DNC computer engineers designed and coded the appropriate queries to produce that data These queries are secret sensitive work product developed by the DNC for the purpose of retrieving specific cross-sections of information in order to develop political financial and voter engagement strategies and services Many of these queries are used or intended for use in interstate commerce The DNC derives value from these queries by virtue of their secrecy if made public these queries would reveal critical insights into the DNC's political financial and voter engagement strategies DNC computer engineers could save Vertica queries that they run repeatedly In 2016 some of the DNC's most frequently used Vertica queries--which revealed fundamental elements of the DNC's political and financial strategies-- were stored on the AWS servers 47 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 54 of 111 185 When the DNC wanted to analyze its data to look for helpful patterns or trends the DNC used another piece of software called Tableau Tableau is commercial software not developed by DNC engineers Instead the DNC purchased a license for the Tableau software and ran the software against Vertica 186 Using Tableau the DNC was able to develop graphs maps and other visual reports based on the data stored on Vertica When the DNC wanted to visualize the data it collected the DNC described the information it wanted to examine and DNC computer engineers designed and coded the appropriate Tableau queries to produce that data in the form requested These Tableau queries are secret sensitive work product developed by the DNC for the purpose of transforming its raw data into useful visualizations The DNC derives value from these queries by virtue of their secrecy if made public these queries would reveal critical insights into the DNC's political financial and voter engagement strategies and services Many of these queries are used or intended for use in interstate commerce 187 DNC computer engineers could also save Tableau queries that they ran repeatedly In 2016 some of the DNC's most frequently used Tableau queries--which revealed fundamental elements of the DNC's political and financial strategies--were stored on the AWS servers 188 The DNC's Vertica queries and Tableau Queries that allow DNC staff to analyze their data and measure their progress toward their strategic goals--collectively the DNC's analytics --are its most important valuable and highly confidential tools Because these tools were so essential the DNC would often test them before they were used broadly 189 The tests were conducted using testing clusters --designated portions of the AWS servers where the DNC tests new pieces of software including new Tableau and Vertica Queries To test a new query a DNC engineer could use the query on a synthetic data set--mock-up data 48 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 55 of 111 generated for the purpose of testing new software--or a small set of real data For example the DNC might test a Tableau query by applying the software to a set of information from a specific state or in a specific age range Thus the testing clusters housed sensitive proprietary pieces of software under development As described above the DNC derives significant value from its proprietary software by virtue of its secrecy if made public it would reveal critical insights into the DNC's political financial and voter engagement strategies and services many of which are used or intended for use in interstate commerce 190 The DNC protected all of the data and code in its AWS servers by among other things restricting access to authorized users To gain access to the AWS servers themselves an authorized user had to take multiple steps First the authorized user would have to log onto a Virtual Private Network VPN using a unique username and password Second once the user entered a valid and password the system would send a unique six-digit code PIN to the authorized user's phone and the user would have 30 seconds to type it into the computer system This two-step process is commonly known as two-factor authentication 191 Authorized users would also employ a two-factor authentication system to access Tableau visualizations First they would log into a Google account with a unique username and password and then they would enter a pin sent to their cell phones 192 Finally the DNC's AWS servers were protected with firewalls and cybersecurity best practices including a limiting the IP addresses and ports with which users could access servers b auditing user account activities and c monitoring authentication and access attempts 193 On September 20 2016 CrowdStrike's monitoring service discovered that unauthorized users had breached DNC AWS servers that contained testing clusters Further forensic analysis showed that the unauthorized users had stolen the contents of these DNC AWS 49 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 56 of 111 servers by taking snapshots of the virtual servers and had moved those replicas to other AWS accounts they controlled The GRU stole multiple snapshots of these servers between September 5 2016 and September 22 2016 The U S later concluded that this cyberattack had been executed by the GRU as part of its broader campaign to damage to the Democratic party The GRU could have derived significant economic value from the theft of the DNC's data by among other possibilities selling the data to the highest bidder 194 The software would also be usable as executable code by DNC opponents who could attempt to re-create DNC data visualizations or derive DNC strategy decisions by analyzing the tools the DNC uses to analyze its data P Russia Continues Disseminating Stolen Documents 195 Though October 2016 GRU Operatives using the screenname Guccifer 2 0 release d documents through WordPress that they had stolen from a Democratic organization and the DNC 163 For example on October 18 2016 the GRU Operatives posted screenshots on WordPress of previously-unreleased documents stolen from the DNC 164 Q Trump Publicly Praises The Illegal Dissemination Of The Stolen DNC Data 196 Trump repeatedly lauded the disclosure of the data stolen by the Russians and encouraged the media and voters to pay more attention to the leaks 197 On July 24 2016 Trump tweeted The Democrats are in a total meltdown but the biased media will say how great they are doing E-mails say the rigged system is alive well 165 198 On July 24 2016 Trump tweeted If the Republican Convention had blown up with e-mails resignation of boss and the beat down of a big player Bernie media would go wild 166 50 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 57 of 111 199 On July 25 2016 Trump tweeted The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails which should never have been written stupid because Putin likes me 167 200 On October 12 2016 Trump tweeted Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks So dishonest Rigged system 168 201 Similarly on October 3 2016 Trump Jr tweeted For those who have the time to read about all the corruption and hypocrisy all the @wikileaks emails are right here wlsearch tk 169 The link in the October 3 2016 tweet was provided to Trump Jr by WikiLeaks via a private tweet to Trump Jr 's Twitter account 170 202 At his rallies Trump repeatedly discussed the disclosure of documents on WikiLeaks enthusiastically directing attention to those stolen documents as the accounts below reflect a October 10 2016 Trump said I love WikiLeaks 171 b October 31 2016 Trump said that WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove and Did you see where on Wikileaks it was announced that they were paying protestors to be violent $1 500 172 c November 2 2016 Trump said WikiLeaks just came out with a new one and I t's just been shown by Wikileaks that it's a rigged system with more collusion possibly illegal between the Department of Justice the Clinton campaign and the State Department 173 d November 4 2016 Trump said Boy I love reading those WikiLeaks 174 e November 6 2016 Trump cited Wikileaks while claiming that Clinton was sending highly classified information through her maid 175 f November 7 2016 Trump said They got it all down folks WikiLeaks WikiLeaks 176 203 Finally on November 6 2016--just two days before the election and at a critical time for undecided voters--WikiLeaks released additional hacked DNC emails which it dubbed 51 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 58 of 111 DNC Leak 2 177 The emails included among other things internal discussions regarding DNC strategy and communications efforts 178 R Trump--And Russia--Win 204 On November 9 2016 Trump won the election to become President of the United 205 In Moscow the reaction was jubilation When the news of Trump's victory broke States in the Duma Russia's parliament legislators burst into applause and the announcement by Vyacheslav Nikonov a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee was almost drowned out by clapping and cheering 179 Nikonov stated Three minutes ago Hillary Clinton acknowledged her defeat in the US presidential elections and just seconds ago Trump began his speech as presidentelect I congratulate you all on this 180 VII THE DEFENDANTS' CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY CONTINUED AFTER THE 2016 ELECTION 206 After Trump won the 2016 election the Defendants recognized that Trump's grip on political power was tenuous If the American public discovered the illegal coordination between Russia and the Trump Campaign Trump would have trouble accomplishing his political objectives The Defendants therefore dedicated their criminal enterprise to concealing their collusion sometimes through false and rancorous public statements and other times through criminal obstruction of justice and witness tampering As the Defendants wove their coverup story they remained in close contact ready to help one another when necessary 207 On November 9 2016 the same day Trump won the 2016 election WikiLeaks sent a private message to Stone on Twitter Happy We are now more free to communicate 181 208 On November 11 2016 Trump Campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks provided the Associated Press with a statement denying that the Trump Campaign had any communications 52 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 59 of 111 with any foreign entity during the campaign Never happened There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign 182 209 Similarly on December 18 2016 Trump Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway was asked whether anyone involved in the Trump Campaign had any contact with Russians trying to meddle with the election Conway responded Absolutely not And I discussed that with the president-elect just last night Those conversations never happened I hear people saying it like it's a fact on television That is just not only inaccurate and false but it's dangerous 183 210 During this time Emin Agalarov and Trump Jr remained in close contact In a February 2017 Forbes interview Emin stated we are in contact with both Eric Trump and Trump Jr Indeed their relationship is so close that when asked when was the last time he spoke with Trump Jr Emin replied a s soon as Mr Trump got elected we sent congratulation letters to which they replied and we exchanged texts So basically a couple of weeks ago a month ago 184 211 Despite the Trump Campaign's protestations of innocence several investigations threatened to expose the Defendants' criminal scheme to secure Trump's grip on political power through illegal means On January 13 2017 the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Senate Intelligence Committee announced that it would investigate Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election and on January 25 2017 the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence House Intelligence Committee announced that it would conduct a similar probe On March 20 2017 then-FBI Director James Comey confirmed publicly that the FBI was investigating possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 elections And on May 17 2017 Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein acting as Attorney General appointed Robert Mueller III Mueller to serve as Special Counsel for the Department of Justice with the authority to investigate whether Russia meddled in the 2016 U S presidential 53 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 60 of 111 elections and whether the Trump Campaign was involved in that meddling 185 Mueller empaneled a grand jury by August 3 2017 186 The Defendants and their coconspirators have worked to thwart and discredit these investigations at every turn 212 Soon after Mueller's appointment in 2017 Russia worked to neutralize the threat his investigation posed to Trump Reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee revealed that through multiple fake accounts on Facebook Twitter and other social media platforms Russian operatives worked to paint Mueller as corrupt and to discredit allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election as conspiracy theories As the Washington Post put it h aving worked to help get Trump into the White House Russia now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there 187 A recently unsealed federal criminal complaint from the Eastern District of Virginia provides further evidence that in 2018 Russian operatives engaged in a concerted effort to use social media to portray the Special Counsel as a puppet of the establishment and a politician with proven connections to the Democratic party who is incapable of producing honest and open results 188 213 The Trump Associates have also worked to undermine government investigations in part by hiding information from government officials On January 18 2017 Kushner submitted his SF-86 security clearance form which required him to disclose close and or continuing contact with foreign nationals and any contact with a representative of a foreign government Among other omissions Kushner failed to note that he met with Veselnitskaya and other Russian government representatives at the Trump Tower meeting 189 214 In 2017 Stone repeatedly denied having contact with any Russians during the 2016 campaign testifying before the House Intelligence Committee that he never had any communications with any Russians or individuals fronting for Russians in connection with the 54 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 61 of 111 2016 presidential election 190 and telling the Washington Post that he didn't talk to anybody who was identifiably Russian during the two-year run-up to this campaign 191 215 Stone and Corsi also lied about their communications with WikiLeaks and Assange Stone told the House Intelligence Committee that his backchannel to Assange was Credico rather than Corsi 192 To maintain that story Corsi deleted all of his email correspondence that predated October 11 2016 including an email chain in which a Stone instructed Corsi to get in touch with Assange and WikiLeaks to discuss documents stolen from Democratic targets that had not yet been released to the public and b Corsi followed Stone's instruction 193 Corsi deleted these incriminating emails between January 13 2017 the date that the House Intelligence Committee announced its investigation and March 1 2017 194 Around the same time Stone visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where Assange is living 195 216 Trump Jr similarly sought to cover up his communications with the other Defendants In March 2017 Trump Jr falsely stated Did I meet with people that were Russian I'm sure I'm sure I did But none that were set up None that I can think of at the moment And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way shape or form 196 217 On July 8 2017 Trump Jr released a highly misleading statement about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that was reportedly crafted by his father It was a short introductory meeting I asked Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort to stop by We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up 197 218 On July 9 2017 Trump Jr made further misleading remarks about the Trump Tower meeting The woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia 55 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 62 of 111 were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs Clinton Her statements were vague ambiguous and made no sense No details or supporting information was provided or even offered It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting 198 219 On July 24 2017 Kushner provided a written statement to Congress claiming that he did not know what the Trump Tower meeting was going to be about The House Intelligence Committee Majority's report however concluded that Kushner Trump Jr and Manafort attended the meeting where they expected to receive derogatory information on candidate Clinton from Russian sources In addition before the Trump Tower meeting Trump Jr forwarded to Kushner his emails with Goldstone with the subject line Russia - Clinton - private and confidential 199 Finally Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani has stated that Kushner Trump Jr Manafort Gates and Cohen conducted a preparatory meeting on June 7 2016 before the Trump Tower meeting on June 9 2016 Kushner therefore knew what was on the agenda for June 9 200 220 In his written statement to Congress Kushner also denied attempting to create a secret backchannel with the Russian government during a meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak 201 Kislyak however told his superiors that Kushner had proposed setting up a secret communications channel between the Trump transition team and Moscow using Russian diplomatic facilities that would bypass U S intelligence agencies 202 221 Like Russia Assange and WikiLeaks also worked to undermine the Special Counsel's investigation On July 29 2017 for instance WikiLeaks tweeted Will Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller Fabricate The Results Of His Investigation Like He Did With Iraq 203 56 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 63 of 111 222 On September 7 2017 Trump Jr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that no attendee of the Trump Tower meeting requested additional meetings or communications with members of the Trump Campaign but this testimony was flatly contradicted by subsequentlyreleased emails in which Goldstone on behalf of Aras Agalarov sought a second meeting between Veselnitskaya and the Trump transition team shortly after the election 204 223 On October 5 2017 Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Mifsud and other Russian agents during a January 27 2017 interview Papadopoulos also admitted that on February 17 2017 he deleted his Facebook account and scrubbed other social media accounts and on February 23 2017 he changed his cell phone number in an attempt to hide those contacts 205 224 On September 25 2017 Stone repeatedly lied during his testimony to the House Intelligence Committee As new reports have emerged undermining his testimony Stone has amended his testimony three separate times regarding his contacts with Russian nationals the extent of his interactions with WikiLeaks and his conversations with Trump Campaign officials 206 As one Committee member noted Stone misled us and has repeatedly--three times now--amended his testimony to fit new press reporting 207 225 For instance in his House Intelligence Committee testimony Stone denied that he ever had any communications with any Russians or individuals fronting for Russians in connection with the 2016 presidential election but later acknowledged that he met with a Russian national in May 2016 to obtain dirt on Secretary Clinton 208 Stone also told the Committee he spoke to Assange only through Credico despite the fact that a he communicated with Assange through Corsi and b he exchanged Twitter direct messages with WikiLeaks in 2016 when Assange was the only user of the WikiLeaks Twitter handle 57 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 64 of 111 226 After Stone told the House Intelligence Committee that he used Credico as his intermediary the Committee subpoenaed Credico 209 Fearing Credico would undermine his narrative on November 30 2017 Stone asked Corsi to write publicly about Credico presumably to discredit or influence his testimony Corsi responded Are you sure you want to make something out of this now Why not wait to see what Credico does You may be defending yourself too much - raising new questions that will fuel new inquiries This may be a time to say less not more Stone responded by telling Corsi that Credico will take the 5th--but let's hold a day Credico stated that around the time Stone was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee Stone told him to just go along with Stone's story 210 Credico later asserted his Fifth Amendment rights and declined to talk to the Committee 211 227 On November 20 2017 in written responses to Senate Judiciary Committee questions Veselnitskaya denied she was working with or connected to Russia's Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika 212 She has also repeatedly stated that any suggestion she was acting at the Kremlin's behest at the Trump Tower meeting is anti-Russia hysteria 213 But in fact Veselnitskaya had extensive contacts with Chaika in the months before the Trump Tower meeting and also engaged in other coordinated activities with the Russian government indicating that her actions were coordinated from the very top 214 Moreover a recent indictment detailed her extensive work with a senior Russian prosecutor to obstruct a federal investigation in 20142015 215 228 In early 2018 Credico began to dispute Stone's claim that he was an intermediary between Stone and WikiLeaks In response Stone sent Credico a barrage of communications including an offer to help pay Credico's legal expenses in an attempt to convince Credico to stick to Stone's narrative He wanted me to be quiet He wanted me to go along with his narrative 58 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 65 of 111 Credico contends 216 When Credico nevertheless threatened to dispute Stone's narrative Stone told Credico I am so ready Let's get it on Prepare to die cock sucker 217 229 Stone also engaged in a vigorous effort to secure a pardon for Assange As part of this effort Stone worked with Andrew Napolitano a Fox News personality on a plan for Napolitano to float the pardon idea on his Fox News show or directly to Trump 218 On January 6 2018 Stone sent a text message to Credico telling him he is working with others to get JA Julian Assange a blanket pardon It's very real and very possible 219 In August 2018 Stone again raised the notion of pardoning Assange in an interview with the Washington Examiner 220 230 On September 6 2018 Corsi lied to the Special Counsel's office and FBI special agents falsely telling them he declined Stone's request to contact WikiLeaks and that he never provided Stone with any information regarding WikiLeaks what materials WikiLeaks possessed or what WikiLeaks intended to do with those materials 221 231 Just over a week later on September 14 2018 Manafort falsely told Mueller that he would cooperate with the Special Counsel's investigation While pretending to tell Mueller everything he knew about Russian meddling in the 2016 election Manafort in fact used the meetings with Mueller's team to funnel information about the investigation to Trump222 and to present false information to mislead the Special Counsel 223 On November 26 2018 Mueller submitted a status report to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia explaining that Manafort breached his plea agreement by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters 224 Subsequent filings clarified that Manafort lied about his repeated interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik which continued through at least April 2018 225 Most notably Manafort lied about sharing polling data with Kilimnik related to Trump's 2016 campaign 226 Manafort also said that he did not have any communications with 59 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 66 of 111 officials in the Trump administration when in fact he communicated with Administration officials until May 26 2018 if not later 227 VIII RUSSIA'S CONTINUED HACKING ATTEMPTS A Russia Attempts To Hack The Computer Networks Of Three Midterm Candidates 232 In August 2017 Russia attempted to hack into the Senate computer network of Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill--a longtime critic of Trump Russia and WikiLeaks--and the networks of two other midterm candidates 228 233 The GRU hackers targeting Senator McCaskill sent forged notification emails to Senate staff members claiming the staff member's Microsoft Exchange password had expired and instructing them to change it If the staff member clicked on the link he or she was taken to a convincing replica of the U S Senate's Active Directory Federation Services ADFS login page a single sign-on point for e-mail and other services Each Senate phishing email had a different link coded with the recipient's email address That allowed the fake password-change webpage to display the user's email address when they arrived making the site appear even more convincing 229 B U S Authorities Make Clear That Russia Continues To Pose A Hacking Threat 234 In August 2018 senior U S national security and intelligence officials announced that Russia was continuing its illicit interference in domestic politics including through social media disinformation campaigns and attempts to hack political targets and infiltrate the country's electoral infrastructure Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats characterized the threat of continued Russian interference as real and continuing and FBI Director Chris Wray added that t his threat is not going away 230 60 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 67 of 111 C WikiLeaks Releases Amazon Document Compromising Security Of AWS Servers 235 On October 11 2018 WikiLeaks released a proprietary AWS document showing the locations and some operational details of AWS servers around the world 231 This was one of WikiLeaks' only releases since Assange and WikiLeaks' activities were constrained in the wake of the 2016 election Analysts noted that the leaked AWS information would be incredibly valuable for those trying to compromise AWS servers like the ones that house the DNC's documents and data--i e Russia 232 D A Source Consistent With Cozy Bear Attempts To Hack The DNC's Computer System 236 On November 14 2018 dozens of DNC email addresses were targeted in a spear- phishing campaign although there is no evidence that the attack was successful The content of these emails and their timestamps were consistent with a spear-phishing campaign that leading cybersecurity experts have tied to Cozy Bear APT 29 Therefore it is probable that Cozy Bear again attempted to unlawfully infiltrate DNC computers in November 2018 IX TRUMP CONTINUES TO SIDE GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATORS 237 WITH RUSSIA AND DENIGRATE Even Trump--an integral member of the Trump Campaign--has continually cast doubt on Mueller's investigation On the plane ride home from an in-person meeting with Putin in July 2017--where Trump and Putin had a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject of election hacking--Trump called a New York Times reporter and argued that Russia had been falsely accused of election interference 233 238 On July 16 2018 Trump and Putin met for two hours in Helsinki Finland and subsequently held a joint press conference During the press conference Trump sided with Putin by stating that the Russian government did not intervene in the 2016 presidential election referring 61 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 68 of 111 to Putin's strong and powerful denial of interference Trump's statements came just three days after the indictment of the GRU Operatives and contradicted the findings of the U S intelligence community In response Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the meeting as better than super 234 239 Among a torrent of tweets denigrating Mueller and casting doubt on his investigation on September 16 2018 Trump tweeted The illegal Mueller Witch Hunt continues in search of a crime There was never Collusion with Russia except by the Clinton campaign so the 17 Angry Democrats are looking at anything they can find Very unfair and BAD for the country ALSO not allowed under the LAW 235 240 On November 27 2018 Trump tweeted The Fake News Media Builds Bob Mueller Up As A Saint When In Actuality He Is The Exact Opposite He Is Doing TREMENDOUS Damage To Our Criminal Justice System Where He Is Only Looking At One Side And Not The Other 236 241 Trump has also lauded those who have refused to cooperate with Mueller's investigation For instance on August 22 2018 Trump tweeted I Feel Very Badly For Paul Manafort And His Wonderful Family 'Justice' Took A 12 Year Old Tax Case Among Other Things Applied Tremendous Pressure On Him And Unlike Michael Cohen He Refused To 'Break' - Make Up Stories In Order To Get A 'Deal ' Such Respect For A Brave Man 237 242 Similarly on December 3 2018 Trump tweeted 'I will never testify against Trump ' This statement was recently made by Roger Stone essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about 'President Trump ' Nice to know that some people still have 'guts ' 238 62 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 69 of 111 243 Meanwhile Trump has continued to help Russia achieve its goals by adopting policies that inure to Russia's benefit For example over the last few years Trump has threatened to withdraw the U S from NATO on multiple occasions which would be advantageous to Putin 239 and on December 19 2018 Trump ordered the withdrawal of U S forces from Syria a policy decision that favors Russian interests and which Putin has praised 240 X THE SIGNIFICANT HARM INFLICTED UPON PLAINTIFF 244 The illegal conspiracy inflicted profound damage upon the DNC The timing and selective release of the stolen materials prevented the DNC from communicating with the American electorate on its own terms These selective releases of stolen material reached a peak immediately before the Democratic National Convention and continued through the general election 245 The timing and selective release of stolen materials was designed to and had the effect of driving a wedge between the DNC and Democratic voters The release of stolen materials also impaired the DNC's ability to support Democratic candidates in the general election 246 The public release of stolen DNC materials was enormously disruptive to the Democratic National Convention undermining the party's ability to achieve unity and rally members around their shared values The release cast a cloud over the convention's activities interfering with the party's opportunity to communicate its vision to the electorate 247 The release of this stolen material upended the DNC's ability to communicate effectively among staff and with members of the party and broader community It also exposed the DNC's staff to constant threats by telephone and email which were unavoidable because staff could not change their contact information with the Convention underway 248 The DNC also suffered significant interruption and disruption of its political and fundraising activities throughout the United States during the critical final months of the 63 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 70 of 111 presidential campaign Specifically the release of personal and sometimes embarrassing information about DNC donors was intended to harm the DNC including by chilling potential donors which resulted The release of stolen Democratic materials had precisely this effect resulting in a substantial loss of income to the DNC and a reduction in the overall amounts of funds that the DNC could expend to support Democratic candidates nationwide 249 In addition because the public releases included personal and in some cases protected information about DNC employees it exposed employees of the DNC to intense frightening and sometimes life-threatening harassment Understandably this harassment impaired the employees' ability to function effectively in their jobs 250 On July 22 2016--the same day as the first WikiLeaks release of stolen DNC emails--a DNC employee received a voicemail from an unknown caller stating that the employee should be executed and that he hoped the employee would be put in jail put on trial and executed for being a traitor 251 On July 23 2016 multiple DNC employees received an email stating I hope all your children get raped and murdered I hope your family knows nothing but suffering torture and death 252 On July 24 2016 an employee received a voicemail stating you got a target on your back better keep looking over your shoulder expletive You expletives Die Die Die Die I hate you expletive guts you expletive You've got an arrow on your back And you know what Snipers are going to get you You expletives 253 Another received a profanity-laden voicemail warning him that We're coming for you These threats as well as others all began after July 22 when WikiLeaks released the over 64 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 71 of 111 20 000 stolen DNC emails which contained the names e-mail addresses and phone numbers of the DNC employees 254 In addition Defendants' conduct caused enormous damage to the DNC's computer systems creating the need to a repair and replace all of the DNC's computer hardware and software telephone and telephone systems and back-up systems due to damage from the illegal hacking and related release of such information b pay staff and consultants to investigate the hacks described above and c retain staff and consultants to remediate the damage caused by the hacking's impact The DNC bore the cost of all of these activities including purchasing new computer hardware and equipment paying for an ongoing hacking-monitoring services subscription capable of detecting Cozy Bear Fancy Bear and similar intruders 255 Additionally during the September 2016 breach of the DNC's servers the GRU stole proprietary information concerning the ways in which the DNC analyzed its data developed its strategies and approached decisions in its efforts to win the 2016 election 256 The GRU also stole proprietary computer code that DNC computer engineers spent many hours developing The DNC derived significant economic value from keeping that computer code secret until it was taken by Russian agents CAUSES OF ACTION COUNT I COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT 18 U S C 1030 A AGAINST RUSSIA 257 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 258 The DNC's computers are involved in interstate and foreign commerce and communication and are protected computers under 18 U S C 1030 e 2 65 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 72 of 111 259 On information and belief Russia knowingly and intentionally accessed the DNC's computers without authorization or in excess of authorization and thereby obtained and used valuable information from those computers in violation of 18 U S C 1030 a 2 C Such information included but was not limited to private politically sensitive communications between the DNC and Democratic stakeholders and candidates confidential donor data digital information DNC-developed code confidential campaign strategy plans opposition and policy research and documents regarding planned political events including fundraisers and rallies The information was used to advance the plan to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee and the Democratic party discussed herein and bolster Trump's candidacy by strategically releasing the confidential proprietary information to the public online including on WikiLeaks 260 Upon information and belief Russia knowingly caused the transmission of information or a program code or command and as a result of such conduct intentionally caused damage without authorization to a protected computer in violation of 18 U S C 1030 a 5 A Such transmission included but was not limited to the use of malware on DNC systems 261 Upon information and belief Russia intentionally accessed a protected computer or computers without authorization and as a result of such conduct caused damage and loss in violation of 18 U S C 1030 a 5 C or recklessly caused damage in violation of 18 U S C 1030 a 5 B 262 Upon information and belief Russia knowingly and with the intent to defraud trafficked passwords and similar information from the DNC systems and such trafficking affected interstate or foreign commerce in violation of 18 U S C 1030 a 6 A 66 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 73 of 111 263 Russia caused loss to one or more persons during a one-year period aggregating well over $5 000 in value and they also caused damage affecting ten or more protected computers during a one-year period 264 The DNC suffered damage and loss as a consequence of Russia's actions including but not limited to the cost of investigating and responding to the unauthorized access and abuse of their computer networks conducting damage assessments restoring and replacing computers and data programs systems or information the loss of the value of the DNC's trade secrets and the harm to the DNC's business as described above The DNC seeks compensatory and other equitable relief under 18 U S C 1030 g COUNT II RICO 18 U S C 1962 C AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 265 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 266 Defendants are all persons within the meaning of 18 U S C 1961 3 At all relevant times Defendants conducted the affairs of an Enterprise--which affected interstate and foreign commerce--through a pattern of racketeering activity in violation of 18 U S C 1962 c A The Trump Campaign Was The Racketeering Enterprise 267 The Trump Campaign was a Racketeering Enterprise as that term is used in 18 U S C 1961 4 The Enterprise was formed by June 2015 268 The Trump Campaign had an ongoing organizational framework for carrying out its objectives 269 As described above each Defendant--except the Trump Campaign itself-- participated in the operation or management of the Trump Campaign 67 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 74 of 111 270 Because the Trump Campaign expended millions of dollars on the 2016 presidential race it affected interstate and foreign commerce 271 Each Defendant--except the Trump Campaign itself--conducted and or participated in the affairs of the Trump Campaign through a pattern of racketeering activity including acts indictable under 18 U S C 1831 economic espionage and 18 U S C 1832 theft of trade secrets B Alternatively And At The Very Least The Trump Campaign Was Part Of An Association-In-Fact Enterprise 272 Alternatively and at the very least the Trump Campaign was part of an Association-In-Fact Enterprise comprising Russia WikiLeaks Assange the Trump Campaign Aras and Emin Agalarov Mifsud the Trump Associates Corsi the Defendants' employees and agents and additional entities and individuals known and unknown The Association-In-Fact Enterprise was formed by March 2016 or at the very least by June 2016 From the date the Enterprise was formed until the present the members of the Association-In-Fact Enterprise have worked together to further their mutual goal of using illegal means to secure Trump's grip on the Presidency in part by damaging the DNC 273 The Association-In-Fact Enterprise had an ongoing organizational framework for carrying out its objectives In fact the Association-In-Fact Enterprise could not have carried out its intricate task of sharing confidential information at the moments when it would be most beneficial to the Trump Campaign unless it had some structure for making and communicating group decisions 274 As described above each Defendant participated in the operation or management of the Association-In-Fact Enterprise and benefitted financially from the enterprise 68 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 75 of 111 275 Because the Association-In-Fact Enterprise's activities affected electoral spending in 2016 as well as the media response to the 2016 presidential race it affected interstate and foreign commerce C RICO Predicate Acts 276 Each Defendant conducted and or participated in the affairs of the Trump Campaign and the Association-In-Fact Enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity including acts indictable under 18 U S C 1831 economic espionage 18 U S C 1832 theft of trade secrets 18 U S C 1503 relating to obstruction of justice and 18 U S C 1512 relating to tampering with a witness victim or an informant a Economic Espionage 277 Beginning on or before April 18 2016 Russia repeatedly attempted--in many instances successfully--to steal and without authorization appropriate take carry away or by fraud artifice or deception obtain trade secrets from the DNC intending or knowing that doing so would benefit Russia Russian instrumentalities or Russian agents in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 1 and a 4 278 Beginning on or before April 22 2016 Russia without authorization copied duplicated downloaded uploaded altered destroyed replicated transmitted delivered sent communicated and or conveyed Plaintiff's trade secrets intending or knowing that doing so would benefit the Russian government Russian instrumentalities or Russian agents in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 2 279 Beginning on or before April 22 2016 Russia received bought or possessed DNC trade secrets knowing the same to have been stolen or appropriated obtained or converted without authorization and intending or knowing that doing so would benefit the Russian Government Russian instrumentalities or Russian agents in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 3 69 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 76 of 111 280 Beginning on or before July 22 2016 WikiLeaks and Assange without authorization copied duplicated downloaded uploaded altered destroyed replicated transmitted delivered sent communicated or conveyed Plaintiff's trade secrets intending or knowing that doing so would benefit the Russian government Russian instrumentalities or Russian agents in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 2 281 Beginning on or before July 22 2016 and continuing daily thereafter through November 2016 WikiLeaks and Assange received bought or possessed Plaintiff's trade secrets knowing them to have been stolen or appropriated obtained or converted without authorization and intending or knowing that doing so would benefit the Russian government Russian instrumentalities or Russian agents in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 3 282 Beginning on or before March 2016 WikiLeaks Assange Manafort Papadopoulos Mifsud the Trump Campaign and Russia conspired with each other to commit the offenses described in paragraphs 277-281 intending or knowing that those offenses would benefit the Russian government Russian instrumentalities or Russian agents in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 5 283 Beginning on or before June 2016 Kushner Aras Agalarov Emin Agalarov Trump Jr Stone and Gates conspired with WikiLeaks Assange Manafort Papadopoulos Mifsud the Trump Campaign Russia and Corsi to commit the offenses described in paragraphs 277-281 intending or knowing that those offenses would benefit the Russian government Russian instrumentalities or Russian agents in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 5 b Theft of Trade Secrets 284 Beginning on or before April 18 2016 Russia repeatedly attempted--in many instances successfully--to steal and without authorization appropriate take carry away or by fraud artifice or deception obtain trade secrets from the DNC with the intent to convert those 70 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 77 of 111 trade secrets which are and were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate commerce to the economic benefit of itself and the other Defendants and non-defendant coconspirators and intending and knowing that the offense would injure the DNC in violation of 18 U S C 1832 a 1 and a 4 285 Beginning on or before April 22 2016 Russia without authorization copied duplicated downloaded uploaded altered destroyed replicated transmitted delivered sent communicated and or conveyed trade secrets from the DNC with the intent to convert those trade secrets which are and were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate commerce to the economic benefit of itself and the other Defendants and non-defendant coconspirators and intending and knowing that the offense would injure the DNC in violation of 18 U S C 1832 a 2 286 Beginning on or before April 22 2016 Russia received bought or possessed DNC trade secrets with the intent to convert those trade secrets which are and were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate commerce knowing the same to have been stolen or appropriated obtained or converted without authorization to the economic benefit of itself and the other Defendants and non-defendant coconspirators and intending and knowing that the offense would injure the DNC in violation of 18 U S C 1832 a 3 287 Beginning on or before July 22 2016 WikiLeaks and Assange without authorization copied duplicated downloaded uploaded altered destroyed replicated transmitted delivered sent communicated or conveyed DNC trade secrets with the intent to convert those trade secrets which are and were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate commerce to the economic benefit of themselves and the other Defendants 71 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 78 of 111 and non-defendant coconspirators and intending and knowing that the offense would injure the DNC in violation of 18 U S C 1832 a 2 288 Beginning on or before July 22 2016 and continuing daily thereafter WikiLeaks and Assange with the intent to convert trade secrets which are and were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate commerce to the economic benefit of themselves and the other Defendants and non-defendant coconspirators and intending and knowing that the offense would injure the DNC received bought or possessed Plaintiff's trade secrets knowing them to have been stolen or appropriated obtained or converted without authorization in violation of 18 U S C 1832 a 3 289 Beginning on or before March 2016 Papadopoulos Mifsud the Trump Campaign and Russia with the intent to convert trade secrets which are and were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate commerce to the economic benefit of themselves and the other Defendants and non-defendant coconspirators and intending and knowing that the offense would injure the DNC conspired with each other to commit the offenses described in paragraphs 284-286 in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 5 290 Beginning on or before June 2016 WikiLeaks Assange Manafort Kushner Aras Agalarov Emin Agalarov Trump Jr Stone Gates and Corsi conspired with Papadopoulos Mifsud the Trump Campaign Russia and the GRU other to commit the offenses described in paragraphs 284-288 with the intent to convert trade secrets which are and were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate commerce to the economic benefit of themselves and the non-defendant coconspirators and intending and knowing that the offense would injure the DNC in violation of 18 U S C 1831 a 5 72 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 79 of 111 c Obstruction of Justice 291 As explained in detail above the Defendants and non-defendant coconspirators repeatedly obstructed justice in violation of 18 U S C 1503 including on the dates set forth below 292 Beginning on or before January 27 2017 Papadopoulos corruptly endeavored to obstruct and impede--and did obstruct and impede--the due administration of justice in violation of 18 U S C 1503 a 293 Beginning on or before September 2017 Stone corruptly endeavored to obstruct and impede--and did obstruct and impede--the due administration of justice in violation of 18 U S C 1503 a 294 Beginning on or before September 14 2018 Manafort corruptly endeavored to obstruct and impede--and did obstruct and impede--the due administration of justice in violation of 18 U S C 1503 a d Witness Tampering 295 As explained in detail above the Defendants and non-defendant coconspirators repeatedly obstructed official proceedings in violation of 18 U S C 1512 including on the dates set forth below 296 Beginning on or before January 2017 Corsi corruptly altered destroyed mutilated or concealed a record document or other object with the intent to impair the object's integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 c 1 297 Beginning on or before February 17 2017 Papadopoulos corruptly altered destroyed mutilated or concealed a record document or other object with the intent to impair the object's integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 c 1 73 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 80 of 111 298 Beginning on or before January 27 2017 Papadopoulos corruptly obstructed or impeded an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 c 2 299 Beginning on or before July 24 2017 Kushner corruptly attempted to obstruct or impede an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 c 2 300 Beginning on or before September 2017 Stone corruptly attempted to obstruct or impede an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 c 2 In addition beginning on or before 2018 Stone knowingly used intimidation threats and other corrupt methods to influence delay or prevent Credico's testimony in an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 b 1 301 Beginning on or before September 7 2017 Trump Jr corruptly attempted to obstruct or impede an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 c 2 302 Beginning on or before September 14 2017 Manafort corruptly attempted to obstruct or impede an official proceeding in violation of 18 U S C 1512 c 2 303 Beginning on or before January 2017 Corsi and Stone conspired to commit the offenses described in paragraphs 296 and 300 in violation of 18 U S C 1512 k D RICO Damages 304 Plaintiff has been injured in its business and property by Defendants' violation of 18 U S C 1962 c Defendants caused enormous harm to Plaintiff's business as described above and to Plaintiff's computers and servers All of these injuries occurred within the United States COUNT III RICO CONSPIRACY 18 U S C 1962 D AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 305 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 74 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 81 of 111 306 Defendants conspired with each other to violate 18 U S C 1962 c Defendants knowingly agreed combined and conspired to conduct the affairs of the Enterprise or the Association-In-Fact Enterprise through a cyber-espionage operation Each Defendant agreed that the operation would involve repeated violations of 18 U S C 1831 economic espionage 18 U S C 1832 theft of trade secrets 18 U S C 1503 relating to obstruction of justice and 18 U S C 1512 relating to tampering with a witness victim or an informant 307 Defendants' conspiracy to violate 18 U S C 1962 c violated 1962 d 308 Plaintiff has been injured in their business or property by Defendants' violation of 18 U S C 1962 d Plaintiff has been injured in its business and property by Defendants' violation of 18 U S C 1962 c Defendants caused enormous harm to Plaintiff's business as described above and to Plaintiff's computers and servers All of these injuries occurred within the United States COUNT IV WIRETAP ACT 18 U S C 2510-22 AGAINST WIKILEAKS ASSANGE THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND THE TRUMP ASSOCIATES 309 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 310 Each of the above-listed defendants is a person within the meaning of 18 U S C 2510 2511 311 In violation of 18 U S C 2511 1 c WikiLeaks and Assange willfully and intentionally endeavored to disclose and did disclose the contents of Plaintiff's wire oral or electronic communications knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of wire oral or electronic communication in violation of 18 U S C 2511 75 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 82 of 111 312 In violation of 18 U S C 2511 1 d WikiLeaks Assange the Trump Associates and the Trump Campaign willfully and intentionally endeavored to use and did use the contents of wire oral electronic communications knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire oral or electronic communication in violation of 18 U S C 2511 313 Plaintiff had a justifiable expectation that its wire oral or electronic communications were not subject to interception 314 Plaintiff is a person whose wire oral or electronic communications were intercepted within the meaning of 18 U S C 2520 315 As a direct result of WikiLeaks Assange the Trump Associates and the Trump Campaign's actions Plaintiff suffered irreparable harm to its business and property and is entitled to an award of the greater of the actual damages suffered or the statutory damages and injunctive relief pursuant to 18 U S C 2520 c This harm includes but is not limited to harm to DNC computers and servers harm to the DNC's reputation loss in the value of DNC trade secrets and business information and harm to business as described above 316 In light of the egregious nature of WikiLeaks Assange the Trump Associates and the Trump Campaign's violations Plaintiff is entitled to punitive damages and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs pursuant to 18 U S C 2520 b 2 3 COUNT V STORED COMMUNICATIONS ACT 18 U S C 2701-12 AGAINST RUSSIA 317 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 318 Plaintiff is a person within the meaning of 18 U S C 2510 6 and 2707 a 76 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 83 of 111 319 Russia willfully and intentionally accessed without authorization a facility through which an electronic communication service is provided namely the DNC's computer systems including their email servers thereby obtaining access to wire or electronic communications while they were in electronic storage in such systems in violation of 18 U S C 2701 a 320 As a result of these willful and intentional violations Plaintiff has suffered damages and as provided for in 18 U S C 2707 seeks an award of the greater of the actual damages suffered or the statutory damages punitive damages attorneys' fees and other costs of this action and appropriate equitable relief COUNT VI DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT 17 U S C 1201 ET SEQ AGAINST RUSSIA 321 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 322 Plaintiff's computer networks and files contained information subject to protection under the copyright laws of the United States including campaign strategy documents and opposition research that Russia illegally accessed without authorization 323 Access to the copyrighted material contained on Plaintiff's computer networks and email was controlled by technological measures including measures restricting remote access firewalls and measures restricting access to users with valid credentials and passwords 324 In violation of 17 U S C 1201 a Russia circumvented these technological measures by stealing credentials from authorized users conducting a password dump to unlawfully obtain passwords to the system controlling access to the DNC's domain and installing malware on Plaintiff's computer systems 77 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 84 of 111 325 Russia's conduct caused Plaintiff significant damages These damages include but are not limited to damage resulting from harm to DNC computers and servers loss in the value of DNC trade secrets and business information and harm to business as described above Plaintiff is entitled to the greater of its actual damages or statutory damages as provided by 17 U S C 1203 in an amount to be proven at trial 326 Plaintiff is entitled to an award of attorneys' fees and costs as provided by 17 U S C 1203 COUNT VII MISAPPROPRIATION OF TRADE SECRETS UNDER THE DEFEND TRADE SECRETS ACT 18 U S C 1836 ET SEQ AGAINST RUSSIA WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE 327 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 328 The documents and computer code that Russia stole from the DNC's computer systems include trade secrets within the meaning of 18 U S C 1839 329 Specifically the DNC is in the business of supporting Democratic political campaigns and the stolen documents included Democratic donor information digital information DNC-developed code opposition research and strategic information regarding planned political activities that allow it to effectively carry out its mission 330 The DNC takes and has taken reasonable measures to keep such information secret In particular the DNC maintains and maintained their information on secured servers and uses two-factor authentication to ensure that only authorized users gain access to their data and computer code In addition the DNC uses firewalls and the cybersecurity best practices described above 78 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 85 of 111 331 Plaintiff's trade secrets were related to products or services used in or intended for use in interstate or foreign commerce 332 Russia misappropriated Plaintiff's trade secrets Russia acquired Plaintiff's trade secrets knowing or having reason to know that the trade secrets were acquired by improper means Russia WikiLeaks and Assange disclosed Plaintiff's trade secrets without consent on multiple dates discussed herein knowing or having reason to know that the trade secrets were acquired by improper means These misappropriations started before the effective date of the Defend Trade Secrets Act May 11 2016 and continued for months after the effective date 333 As a direct consequence of Defendants' misappropriation Plaintiff has suffered damages for the cost of materials loss of goodwill and attorneys' fees and costs Plaintiff is also entitled to punitive damages These damages include but are not limited to damage resulting from harm to DNC computers and servers loss in the value of DNC trade secrets and business information and harm to business as described above 334 Plaintiff is also entitled to a preliminary and permanent injunction pursuant to 18 U S C 1836 b 3 COUNT VIII WASHINGTON D C UNIFORM TRADE SECRETS ACT D C CODE ANN 36-401 - 46-410 AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 335 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 336 The District of Columbia expressly empowers a party to recover damages for misappropriation of a trade secret 79 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 86 of 111 337 The documents and computer code that Russia exfiltrated from the DNC's computer systems include trade secrets under District of Columbia law as discussed above and in keeping with the definition of trade secrets under District of Columbia law information including a formula pattern compilation program device method technique or process that A Derives actual or potential independent economic value from not being generally known to and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by another who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use and B Is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy D C Code Ann 36-401 2 338 This information derived an actual independent economic value by remaining confidential and private and not being readily ascertainable to others Plaintiff takes and has taken reasonable measures to keep such information secret as discussed supra in Count VII 339 Each Defendant disclosed received and used these misappropriated trade secrets without Plaintiff's consent knowing or having reason to know that the trade secrets were acquired by improper means 340 As a direct consequence of Defendants' misappropriation Plaintiff has suffered damages for actual loss and from Defendants' unjust enrichment These damages include but are not limited to damage resulting from harm to DNC computers and servers loss in the value of DNC trade secrets and business information and harm to business as described above 341 Defendants' misappropriation of Plaintiff's trade secrets was willful and malicious Accordingly Plaintiff is entitled to exemplary damages in an amount up to twice actual damages awarded as well as attorneys' fees and costs 80 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 87 of 111 COUNT IX TRESPASS D C COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 342 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 343 The DNC owns and operates private computers and a private computer network This network and the information contained therein constitutes the property of Plaintiff 344 On or about July 27 2015 Russian intelligence agents hacked into the DNC's computers and network placed malware on the computers and network and left the malware on the computers and network On or about April 18 2016 GRU agents hacked into the DNC's computers and network placed malware on the computers and network and left the malware there until at least June of 2016 On or about June 10 2016 Russia placed malware on Raider That malware remained on Raider until at least the fall of 2016 In or about September 2016 the GRU separately hacked into the DNC's cloud computing service Each hack constituted a separate and independent trespass in the District of Columbia In addition Russia's acts of leaving malware on the DNC's computers and networks constitute separate and independent trespasses in the District of Columbia The hacks and malware provided Russia with unauthorized access to Plaintiff's property in its network At no point has anyone with authority to do so provided Defendants with authorization to access or remain on Plaintiff's networks 345 Russia's hacks and malware interfered with the DNC's possessory interests in their network and the information contained therein By means of trespass onto Plaintiff's computer network Russia acquired and disseminated confidential and personal information that is Plaintiff's property Defendants would have been unable to disclose this information but for the illegal trespass Russia therefore deprived Plaintiff of its possessory interest in maintaining the privacy 81 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 88 of 111 and confidentiality of its property As a result Plaintiff has suffered diminution in the value of its property and is entitled to damages COUNT X CONVERSION D C COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 346 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 347 The DNC owns and operates a private computer network with computers and servers located in Washington D C and in Virginia This network and the information contained therein constitutes the property of Plaintiff 348 On April 22 2016 the GRU staged several gigabytes of DNC data located on the DNC's servers for unauthorized and surreptitious exfiltration--known more commonly as theft The GRU later used malware known as X-Tunnel to exfiltrate this stolen DNC data outside of the DNC network through encrypted tunnels to a GRU-leased computer located in Illinois That exfiltration constituted an unlawful exercise of dominion or control over the DNC's property in violation of the DNC's property rights 349 The GRU further exercised unlawful dominion or control over the DNC's property when it deleted computer logs and files to cover its tracks in violation of the DNC's property rights 350 As a result Plaintiff has suffered diminution in the value of its property and is entitled to damages 82 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 89 of 111 COUNT XI TRESPASS TO CHATTELS VIRGINIA COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 351 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 352 Plaintiff the DNC owns and operates a private computer network with computers and servers located in Washington D C and in Virginia This network and the information contained therein constitutes the property of Plaintiff 353 On or about July 27 2015 Russian intelligence agents hacked into the DNC's computers and network placed malware on the computers and network and left the malware on the computers and network On or about April 18 2016 GRU agents hacked into the DNC's computers and network placed malware on the computers and network and left the malware there until at least June of 2016 On or about June 10 2016 Russia placed malware on Raider That malware remained on Raider until at least the fall of 2016 In or about September 2016 the GRU hacked into the DNC's cloud computing service Each hack constituted a separate and independent trespass in Virginia The hacks and malware provided Russia with unauthorized access to Plaintiff's property in its network At no point has anyone with authority to do so provided Defendants with authorization to access or remain on Plaintiff's networks 354 Russia and GRU's hacks and malware interfered with Plaintiff's possessory interests in its network and the information contained therein By means of trespass onto Plaintiff's network Russia acquired and disseminated confidential and personal information that is Plaintiff's property Defendants would have been unable to disclose this information but for the illegal trespass Russia therefore deprived Plaintiff of its possessory interest in maintaining the privacy 83 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 90 of 111 and confidentiality of its property As a result Plaintiff has suffered diminution in the value of its property and is entitled to damages COUNT XII CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT TRESPASS TO CHATTELS VIRGINIA COMMON LAW AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 355 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 356 Defendants were part of a common scheme in which they conspired and combined to access without authorization the DNC's computer systems to steal confidential information publicly disseminate the stolen information and use that stolen and publicly disclosed information for the common purpose of using illegal means to secure Trump's grip on the Presidency in part by denigrating Secretary Clinton and the Democratic Party These actions constituted an exercise of wrongful dominion over Plaintiff's computers and computer system and private email accounts 357 Pursuant to and in furtherance of this common scheme Defendants conspired to commit the unlawful acts described herein including acts that constitute trespass 358 Pursuant to and in furtherance of this common scheme each Defendant committed overt acts including arranging meetings between the co-conspirators encouraging and planning for the scheme to occur hacking into the DNC's computers and network installing and leaving malware on the DNC's computers and network stealing the DNC's private confidential information and releasing that information without permission to the public These overt acts caused Plaintiff injury and damages as discussed supra 359 All of the named Defendants aided and abetted in the unlawful acts described herein as part of and furtherance of a common scheme and each of these Defendants knowingly and 84 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 91 of 111 substantially assisted the common scheme and was generally aware of his role as part of an overall common scheme Accordingly the actions of Defendants constitute conspiracy to trespass 360 As a result Plaintiff has suffered diminution in the value of its property and is entitled to damages COUNT XIII CONVERSION VIRGINIA COMMON LAW AGAINST RUSSIA 361 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 362 The DNC owns and operates a private computer network with computers and servers located in Washington D C and in Virginia This network and the information contained therein constitutes the property of Plaintiff 363 On April 22 2016 the GRU staged several gigabytes of DNC data located on the DNC's servers for unauthorized and surreptitious exfiltration--known more commonly as theft That same day the GRU later used malware known as X-Tunnel to exfiltrate this stolen DNC data outside of the DNC network through encrypted tunnels to a GRU-leased computer located in Illinois That exfiltration constituted an unlawful exercise of dominion or control over the DNC's property in violation of the DNC's property rights 364 The GRU further exercised unlawful dominion or control over the DNC's property when it deleted computer logs and files to cover its tracks in violation of the DNC's property rights 365 As a result Plaintiff has suffered diminution in the value of its property and is entitled to damages 85 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 92 of 111 COUNT XIV VIOLATION OF THE VIRGINIA COMPUTER CRIMES ACT VA CODE ANN 18 2-152 1 ET SEQ AGAINST ALL DEFENDANTS 366 Plaintiff realleges and incorporates by reference all prior paragraphs of this Complaint and paragraphs in the counts below as though set forth fully herein 367 Russia used Plaintiff's computers and computer networks without authority obtained property by false pretenses and converted Plaintiff's property in violation of Va Code Ann 18 2-152 3 368 Russia with malicious intent a temporarily or permanently removed halted or otherwise disabled computer data computer programs or computer software from the DNC's computer or computer network in violation of Va Code Ann 18 2152 4 1 b caused the DNC's computers to malfunction in violation of Va Code Ann 18 2-152 4 2 c altered disabled or erased computer data computer programs or computer software in violation of Va Code Ann 18 2-152 4 3 d used a computer or computer network to make or cause to be made an unauthorized copy of computer data computer programs or computer software residing in communicated by or produced by a computer or computer network in violation of Va Code Ann 18 2-152 4 6 e installed or caused to be installed or collected information through computer software that records all or a majority of the keystrokes made on 86 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 93 of 111 the DNC's computers without their authorization in violation of Va Code Ann 18 2-152 4 8 369 Russia used a computer or computer network and intentionally examined without authority employment credit financial or identifying information relating to other persons in violation of in Va Code Ann 18 2-152 5 370 Russia used a computer to obtain access or record through the use of material artifice trickery or deception identifying information including social security numbers and passport numbers in violation of Va Code Ann 18 2-152 5 1 371 Each Defendant knowingly aided abetted encouraged induced instigated contributed to and assisted Russia's violation of Va Code Ann 18 2-152 3 18 2-152 4 and 18 2-152 5 372 All Defendants' violations of the foregoing provisions caused Plaintiff injury This injury includes but is not limited to injury resulting from harm to DNC computers and servers loss in the value of DNC trade secrets and business information and harm to business as described above Plaintiff is entitled to recover damages and the costs of suit under Va Code Ann 18 2152 12 PRAYER FOR RELIEF WHEREFORE Plaintiff demands judgment against Defendants on all Counts and seeks such relief as specified below for all Counts for which such relief is provided by law a Awarding Plaintiff damages in an amount to be determined including but not limited to all damages and losses suffered by Plaintiff as a result of the illegal hacking theft and subsequent release of Plaintiff's confidential documents and or Plaintiff's response to and remediation related thereto 87 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 94 of 111 b Awarding Plaintiff compensatory and treble damages as available in an amount to be proven at trial c Awarding Plaintiff the financial gain earned by Defendants as a consequence of the violations described herein d Awarding Plaintiff statutory damages as available e Awarding Plaintiff punitive damages as available f Issuing a declaration that Defendants according to proof conspired to and did engage in a common scheme to effect the illegal and unauthorized hacking of Plaintiff's computer systems and or personal emails and the exfiltration of confidential information disseminated that stolen information to the public and used that disclosed stolen information to impact the 2016 election for their own gain g Issuing an injunction restraining Defendants and their officers agents servants employees assigns and those acting in active concert or participation with them from a Accessing Plaintiff's computer networks and or personal emails without Plaintiff's authorizations b Engaging in any activity that disrupts diminishes the quality of interferes with the performance of or impairs the functionality of Plaintiff's computer networks or personal emails and c Selling publishing distributing or using any property or information obtained from Plaintiff's computer networks or personal emails without Plaintiff's authorization d Removing extracting or copying any information or data from Plaintiff's computers or personal emails without Plaintiff's authorization 88 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 95 of 111 h Awarding Plaintiff all costs and attorneys' fees to the full extent permitted under the applicable law i Awarding Plaintiff pre- and post-judgment interest as permitted by law j Awarding any other relief as the Court may deem just and proper JURY DEMAND Pursuant to Rule 38 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Plaintiff demands trial by jury in this action of all issues so triable January 17 2019 Respectfully submitted s Michael Eisenkraft Michael Eisenkraft Cohen Milstein Sellers Toll PLLC 88 Pine St # 14 New York NY 10005 212 838-7797 Joseph M Sellers Geoffrey A Graber Julia A Horwitz Alison S Deich Eric S Berelovich Cohen Milstein Sellers Toll PLLC 1100 New York Ave NW Fifth Floor Washington DC 20005 202 408-4600 meisenkraft@cohenmilstein com jsellers@cohenmilstein com ggraber@cohenmilstein com jhorwitz@cohenmilstein com adeich@cohenmilstein com eberelovich@cohenmilstein com Attorneys for Plaintiff 89 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 96 of 111 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on January 17 2019 I electronically filed the Second Amended Complaint with the Clerk of the Court using the ECF who in turn sent notice to all counsel of record Dated January 17 2019 s Michael Eisenkraft Michael Eisenkraft 1 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 97 of 111 ENDNOTES Maggie Haberman Roger Stone the 'Trickster' on Trump's Side Is Under F B I Scrutiny N Y Times Mar 21 2017 https www nytimes com 2017 03 21 us roger-stone-donaldtrump-russia html 1 Marty Lederhandler The Hidden History of Trump's First Trip to Moscow Politico Magazine Nov 19 2017 https www politico com magazine story 2017 11 19 trump-first-moscow-trip215842 2 3 Assoc Press Russian Real Estate Deals Never Materialized for Trump Fortune Mar 4 2017 http fortune com 2017 03 04 trump-russian-real-estate 4 Richard Behar Donald Trump And The Felon Inside His Business Dealings With A MobConnected Hustler Forbes Oct 3 2016 7 59 AM https www forbes com sites richardbehar 2016 10 03 donald-trump-and-the-felon-inside-hisbusiness-dealings-with-a-mob-connected-hustler #5b94d7b52282 5 Assoc Press supra note 3 Amy Dempsey Trump vs Trump Inside Toronto's 5-Star Tower Struggle The Star Apr 17 2016 https www thestar com news gta 2016 04 17 trump-vs-trump-inside-torontos-5-startower-struggle html 6 Vernon Silver Evgenia Pismennaya Trump's Two Nights of Parties in Moscow Echo Years Later Bloomberg July 13 2017 https www bloomberg com news articles 2017-07-13 trumps-two-nights-of-parties-in-moscow-reverberate-years-later 7 Tom Hamburger Rosalind S Helderman Michael Birnbaum Inside Trump's Financial Ties to Russia and His Unusual Flattery of Vladimir Putin Wash Post June 17 2016 https www washingtonpost com politics inside-trumps-financial-ties-to-russia-and-his-unusualflattery-of-vladimir-putin 2016 06 17 dbdcaac8-31a6-11e6-8ff77b6c1998b7a0_story html noredirect on utm_term dc2924d0db41 8 9 Michael Crowley When Donald Trump Brought Miss Universe to Moscow Politico May 15 2016 https www politico com story 2016 05 donald-trump-russia-moscow-miss-universe223173 Hunter Walker Brett Arnold Michael Cohen's Efforts to Build a Trump Tower in Moscow Went on Longer Than He Has Previously Acknowledged Yahoo News May 16 2018 https www yahoo com news michael-cohens-efforts-build-trump-tower-moscow-went-longerpreviously-acknowledged-232845349 html 10 11 Nathan Layne Ned Parker Svetlana Reiter et al Russian Elite Invested Nearly $100 Million in Trump Buildings Reuters Mar 17 2017 https www reuters com investigates specialreport usa-trump-property David Ignatius A History of Donald Trump's Business Dealings in Russia Wash Post Nov 2 2017 https www washingtonpost com opinions a-history-of-donald-trumps-businessdealings-in-russia 2017 11 02 fb8eed22-ba9e-11e7-be94fabb0f1e9ffb_story html utm_term 340eff428fe4 12 2 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 98 of 111 13 Caitlin Yilek Author Claims Eric Trump Told Him All Funding for Trump golf courses Comes From Russia in 2014 Wash Exam'r May 7 2017 https www washingtonexaminer com author-claims-eric-trump-told-him-all-funding-for-trumpgolf-courses-comes-from-russia-in-2014 14 Andrew E Kramer Mike McIntire Barry Meier Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump's Campaign Chief N Y Times Aug 14 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 08 15 us politics paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump html 15 Assoc Press Manafort Helped Funnel Money to US Lobbyists From pro-Putin Ukrainian Party Report Claims Fox News Aug 17 2016 http www foxnews com politics 2016 08 17 manafort-helped-funnel-money-to-us-lobbyistsfrom-pro-putin-ukrainian-party-report-claims html Michael Kranish Tom Hamburger Paul Manafort's 'Lavish Lifestyle' Highlighted in Indictment Wash Post Oct 30 2017 https www washingtonpost com politics paulmanaforts-lavish-lifestyle-highlighted-in-indictment 2017 10 30 23615680-bd8f-11e7-8444a0d4f04b89eb_story html utm_term bb5d54a2da8e 16 17 Tom Hamburger Rosalind S Helderman Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Files as Foreign Agent for Ukraine Work Wash Post June 27 2017 https www washingtonpost com politics former-trump-campaign-chairman-paul-manafortfiles-as-foreign-agent-for-ukraine-work 2017 06 27 8322b6ac-5b7b-11e7-9fc6c7ef4bc58d13_story html utm_term c0c580285583 18 Katelyn Polantz Paul Manafort Pleads Guilty and Agrees to Cooperate with Mueller Investigation CNN Sept 14 2018 https www cnn com 2018 09 14 politics paul-manafortguilty-plea index html 19 Manafort Had $10 Million Loan From Russian Oligarch Court Filing Reuters June 27 2018 https www reuters com article us-usa-trump-russia-manafort manafort-had-10-millionloan-from-russian-oligarch-court-filing-idUSKBN1JN2YF Sonam Sheth Manafort's Financial Troubles Raise New Questions About Why He Offered to Work As An Unpaid Volunteer to The Trump Campaign Bus Insider Feb 28 2018 http www businessinsider com paul-manafort-ukraine-debt-trump-campaign-unpaid-volunteer2018-2 20 Kenneth P Vogel Manafort's Man in Kiev Politico Aug 18 2016 https www politico com story 2016 08 paul-manafort-ukraine-kiev-russia-konstantin-kilimnik227181 21 22 Id David Voreacos Mueller Draws Line to Russian Spy's Work With Manafort and Gates Bloomberg Mar 28 2018 https www bloomberg com news articles 2018-03-28 muellerdraws-line-to-russian-spy-s-work-with-manafort-and-gates 23 24 Superseding Indictment at 49 51 United States v Manafort No 17-cr-00201-ABJ D D C Jun 8 2018 3 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 99 of 111 Assoc Press AP Probe Hints at Julian Assange's Budding Ties with Russia CBS News Sept 17 2018 https www cbsnews com news julian-assange-sought-russia-visa-wikileaks-ussecrets-ap-investigation 25 26 Id 27 James Gordon Meek Sean Langan Aicha El Hammar Castano Was there a plan to help Julian Assange escape to Russia ABC News Sept 28 2018 https abcnews go com Politics plan-julian-assange-escape-russia story id 58134811 28 Howard Amos Patrick Sawyer Russian Protests December 10 as it Happened The Telegraph Dec 10 2011 https web archive org web 20140109114019 http www telegraph co uk news worldnews euro pe russia 8947840 Russian-protests-live html 29 Evan Osnos David Remnick Joshua Yaffa Trump Putin and the New Cold War New Yorker Mar 6 2017 https www newyorker com magazine 2017 03 06 trump-putin-and-thenew-cold-war 30 Id 31 Steven Pifer Trump and Russia Expect a Change in Tone But in Substance Brookings Jan 4 2017 https www brookings edu blog order-from-chaos 2017 01 04 trump-and-russiaexpect-a-change-in-tone-but-in-substance Franklin Foer Putin's Puppet Slate July 4 2016 http www slate com articles news_and_politics cover_story 2016 07 vladimir_putin_has_a_pla n_for_destroying_the_west_and_it_looks_a_lot_like html 32 33 Andrew Kaczynski Chris Massie Nathan McDermott 80 Times Trump Talked about Putin CNN Mar 2017 http www cnn com interactive 2017 03 politics trump-putin-russiatimeline 34 Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Primary Night Speech C-SPAN Apr 26 2016 https www c-span org video 408719-1 donald-trump-primary-nightspeech start 1889 transcriptQuery putin John Santucci Trump Says 'Great Honor' to Get Compliments from 'Highly Respected' Putin ABC News Dec 17 2015 http abcnews go com Politics trump-great-honor-complimentshighly-respected-putin story id 35829618 35 Michael R Gordon Niraj Chokshi Trump Criticizes NATO and Hopes for 'Good Deals' With Russia N Y Times Jan 15 2017 https www nytimes com 2017 01 15 world europe donald-trump-nato html 36 Ashley Parker Donald Trump in Scotland Calls 'Brexit' Result 'a Great Thing' N Y Times June 24 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 06 25 us politics donald-trump-scotland html 37 Alexander Mallin Trump Crimea's People Prefer Russia But If He's Elected Putin Is 'Not Going Into Ukraine' ABC News July 31 2016 http abcnews go com ThisWeek trumpcrimeas-people-prefer-russia-elected-putin-ukraine story id 41029437 38 4 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 100 of 111 39 Stephanie Murray Putin I wanted Trump to Win the Election Politico July 16 2018 https www politico com story 2018 07 16 putin-trump-win-election-2016-722486 40 Charlie Savage Assange Avowed Foe of Clinton Timed Email Release for Democratic Convention N Y Times July 26 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 07 27 us politics assange-timed-wikileaks-release-ofdemocratic-emails-to-harm-hillary-clinton html 41 See Indictment at 47 United States v Netyksho No 18-cr-00215-ABJ D D C July 13 2018 July 13 Indictment Max Chafkin Vernon Silver How Julian Assange Turned WikiLeaks Into Trump's Best Friend Bloomberg Oct 11 2016 https www bloomberg com news articles 2016-10-11 howjulian-assange-turned-wikileaks-into-trump-s-best-friend 42 43 Office of the Director of National Intelligence National Intelligence Council No ICA 201701D Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections 2017 available at https www dni gov files documents ICA_2017_01 pdf IC Report 44 Id at 2-3 45 July 13 Indictment at 47 46 IC Report at 2 47 Gloria Borger Marshall Cohen Document Details Scrapped Deal For Trump Tower Moscow CNN Politics Sept 9 2017 https www cnn com 2017 09 08 politics documenttrump-tower-moscow index html cd 1 hl en ct clnk gl us 48 Id 49 Id 50 Exec Order No 13 662 79 Fed Reg 16 169 Mar 24 2014 51 Matt Apuzzo Maggie Haberman Trump Associate Boasted that Moscow Business Deal 'Will Get Donald Elected ' N Y Times Aug 28 2017 https www nytimes com 2017 08 28 us politics trump-tower-putin-felix-sater html 52 Meg Kelly All the Known Times the Trump Campaign Met With Russians Wash Post Nov 13 2017 https www washingtonpost com news fact-checker wp 2017 11 13 all-of-theknown-times-the-trump-campaign-met-withrussians noredirect on utm_term 507d39ac9649 53 Luke Harding Stephanie Kirchgaessner Nick Hopkins Michael Flynn New Evidence Spy Chiefs Had Concerns About Russian Ties The Guardian Mar 31 2017 https www theguardian com us-news 2017 mar 31 michael-flynn-new-evidence-spy-chiefshad-concerns-about-russian-ties 54 Id 5 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 101 of 111 55 Matt Apuzzo Eileen Sullivan Sharon LaFraniere Paul Manafort Was Deep in Debt He Saw an Opportunity in Trump N Y Times Aug 3 2018 https www nytimes com 2018 08 03 us politics paul-manafort-trump-campaign html 56 Julia Ioffe Franklin Foer Did Manafort Use Trump to Curry Favor With a Putin Ally The Atlantic Oct 2 2017 https www theatlantic com politics archive 2017 10 emails-suggestmanafort-sought-approval-from-putin-ally-deripaska 541677 Defendant Paul J Manafort Jr 's Response to the Special Counsel's Submission in Support of its Breach Determination United States v Manafort No 17-cr-00201-ABJ D D C Jan 8 2019 Manafort Response 57 58 Sharon LaFraniere Mark Mazzetti Matt Apuzzo How the Russia Inquiry Began A Campaign Aide Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt N Y Times Dec 30 2017 https www nytimes com 2017 12 30 us politics how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-georgepapadopoulos html 59 Philip Bump Timeline How a Trump Adviser Tried to Work with the Russian Government Wash Post Oct 30 2017 https www washingtonpost com news politics wp 2017 10 30 timeline-how-a-trump-advisertried-to-work-with-the-russian-government 60 Statement of the Offense at 2b United States v Papadopoulos No 17-cr-00182-RDM D D C Oct 5 2017 61 Id 62 Id at 5 63 Id at 2 64 Id at 11 65 Id at 2 66 Id 67 Id 68 Id at 8 Mark Abadi Trump Campaign Officials Suggested 'Someone Low Level' to Communicate with Russians Bus Insider Oct 30 2017 https www businessinsider com trump-campaigngeorge-papadopoulos-low-level-russia-manafort-gates-2017-10 69 Transcript Donald Trump's Foreign Policy Speech N Y Times Apr 27 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 04 28 us politics transcript-trump-foreign-policy html 70 71 LaFraniere et al supra note 58 72 Id 73 Id 74 Id 6 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 102 of 111 Shane Harris Former Trump Adviser's Guilty Plea Ties Campaign to Russian Officials Wall St J Oct 30 2017 https www wsj com articles former-trump-foreign-policy-adviser-toplead-guilty-to-lying-to-fbi-1509374354 75 76 July 13 Indictment at 26-28 77 Id at 26 78 Id at 28 79 Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation GRIZZLY STEPPE - Russian Malicious Cyber Activity December 29 2016 available at https www uscert gov sites default files publications JAR_16-20296A_GRIZZLY%20STEPPE-20161229 pdf 80 Dmitri Alperovitch Bears in the Midst Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee CrowdStrike Jun 15 2016 https www crowdstrike com blog bears-midst-intrusiondemocratic-national-committee 81 IC Report at 2 82 Alperovitch supra note 80 83 Id 84 Id 85 Id 86 See generally July 13 Indictment 87 Alperovitch supra note 80 88 July 13 Indictment at 31 89 Id 28 90 Id 31 91 Id 29 92 Id 28 93 Id 47 94 Alperovitch supra note 83 95 July 13 Indictment at 58 Priscilla Alvarez Elaine Godfrey Donald Trump Jr 's Email Exchange with Rob Goldstone The Atlantic July 11 2017 https www theatlantic com politics archive 2017 07 donaldtrumps-jrs-email-exchange 533244 96 97 Id 98 Philip Bump Donald Trump Jr Said He Didn't Recall Talking to Emin Agalarov Agalarov Remembers It Wash Post July 10 2018 7 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 103 of 111 https www washingtonpost com news politics wp 2018 07 10 donald-trump-jr-said-he-didntrecall-talking-to-emin-agalarov-agalarov-remembersit noredirect on utm_term cd41f6e41956 99 Chris Geidner Trump Jr and Emin Agalarov Stayed in Touch Throughout the Transition Buzzfeed News Apr 27 2018 https www buzzfeednews com article chrisgeidner trump-jrand-emin-agalarov-stayed-in-touch-during-the 100 Alvarez Godfrey supra note 96 Ryan Teague Beckwith Read Donald Trump's Subdued Victory Speech After Winning New Jersey TIME June 8 2016 http time com 4360872 donald-trump-new-jersey-victory-speechtranscript 101 K K Rebecca Lai Alicia Parlapiano What We Know About Donald Trump Jr 's Russia Meeting N Y Times July 18 2017 https www nytimes com interactive 2017 07 18 us politics donald-trump-jr-russiameeting html 102 103 Andrew E Kramer Sharon LaFraniere Lawyer Who Was Said to Have Dirt on Clinton Had Closer Ties to Kremlin Than She Let On N Y Times Apr 27 2018 https www nytimes com 2018 04 27 us natalya-veselnitskaya-trump-tower-russian-prosecutorgeneral html 104 Indictment United States v Veselnitskaya 18-CR-904 S D N Y Dec 20 2018 105 Information Felony United States v Cohen 18-CR-850 S D N Y Nov 29 2018 Ellen Nakashima Russian government hackers penetrated DNC stole opposition research on Trump Wash Post June 14 2016 https www washingtonpost com world national-security russiangovernment-hackers-penetrated-dnc-stole-opposition-research-on-trump 2016 06 14 cf006cb4316e-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story html utm_term da632b3a2eee 106 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Minority Views to the Majorityproduced Report on Russian Active Measures H R Doc Mar 26 2018 107 Aaron Blake 10 Times the Trump Team Has Watered Down its Russia Collusion Denials Wash Post July 30 2018 https www washingtonpost com news the-fix wp 2018 05 17 rudygiuliani-just-watered-down-trumps-russia-collusion-denial-yetagain noredirect on utm_term 4ff71c717925 Ashley Parker et al Trump Dictated Son's Misleading Statement on Meeting with Russian Lawyer Wash Post July 31 2017 https www washingtonpost com politics trump-dictatedsons-misleading-statement-on-meeting-with-russian-lawyer 2017 07 31 04c94f96-73ae-11e78f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story html noredirect on utm_term c71cc2ef6636 108 109 David E Sanger Nicole Perlroth As Democrats Gather a Russian Subplot Raises Intrigue N Y Times July 24 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 07 25 us politics donald-trumprussia-emails html 110 July 13 Indictment at 32 8 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 104 of 111 111 Peston on Sunday ITV broadcast June 12 2016 5 59 PM http www itv com news update 2016-06-12 assange-on-peston-on-sunday-more-clinton-leaksto-come 112 James Rogers Russian Government-Affiliated Hackers Breach DNC Take Research on Donald Trump Fox News June 14 2016 http www foxnews com tech 2016 06 14 russiangovernment-affiliated-hackers-breach-dnc-take-research-on-donald-trump html Guccifer2 Guccifer 2 0 DNC's Servers Hacked By A Lone Hacker Wordpress June 15 2016 https guccifer2 wordpress com 2016 06 15 dnc 113 114 Id 115 Guccifer2 Dossier on Hillary Clinton from DNC Wordpress June 21 2016 https guccifer2 wordpress com 2016 06 21 hillary-clinton 116 Guccifer2 FAQ from Guccifer 2 0 Wordpress June 30 2016 https guccifer2 wordpress com 2016 06 30 faq 117 Guccifer2 Trumpocalypse and Other DNC Plans for July Wordpress July 6 2016 https guccifer2 wordpress com 2016 07 06 trumpocalypse 118 Mark Landler Eric Lichtblau F B I Director James Comey Recommends No Charges for Hillary Clinton on Email N Y Times July 5 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 07 06 us politics hillary-clinton-fbi-email-comey html 119 July 13 Indictment at 47 120 Id 121 Id 122 Id 123 Id 124 Search the DNC Email Database WikiLeaks July 22 2016 10 30 AM https wikileaks org dnc-emails 125 State of the Union Transcript CNN July 24 2016 9 00 PM http transcripts cnn com TRANSCRIPTS 1607 24 sotu 01 html What Donald Trump Said About Russian Hacking and Hillary Clinton's Emails N Y Times July 27 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 07 28 us politics trump-conferencehighlights html 126 127 July 13 Indictment at 22 128 Id at 43 129 Andrew Kaczynski Nathan McDermott Chris Massie Trump adviser Roger Stone repeatedly claimed to know of forthcoming WikiLeaks dumps CNN Mar 20 2017 https www cnn com 2017 03 20 politics kfile-roger-stone-wikileaks-claims index html 130 Id 9 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 105 of 111 131 Draft Statement of the Offense United States v Corsi D D C available at https assets documentcloud org documents 5302125 Draft-Jerome-Corsi-statement-ofoffense pdf 132 Id 133 Id 134 Andrew Kaczynski Gloria Borger Stone on day he sent Assange dinner email also said 'devastating' WikiLeaks were forthcoming CNN Politics Apr 4 2018 https www cnn com 2018 04 04 politics roger-stone-julian-assange-emailwikileaks index html Shelby Holliday Rob Barry Roger Stone's Claim of a 2016 Julian Assange Meeting Draws Scrutiny Wall St J Apr 2 2018 https www wsj com articles roger-stones-claim-of-a-2016julian-assange-meeting-draws-scrutiny-1522695471 135 136 Tom Hamburger et al Roger Stone Claimed Contact with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange in 2016 According to Two Associates Wash Post Mar 13 2018 https www washingtonpost com politics roger-stone-claimed-contact-with-wikileaks-founderjulian-assange-in-2016-according-to-two-associates 2018 03 13 a263f842-2604-11e8-b79df3d931db7f68_story html utm_term 2d4b927521e5 137 Kaczynski et al supra note 129 138 Eric Lichtblau Noah Weiland Hacker Releases More Democratic Party Documents N Y Times Aug 12 2016 https www nytimes com 2016 08 13 us politics democratic-partydocuments-hack html Ryan Goodman How Roger Stone Interacted With Russia's Guccifer and Wikileaks Newsweek Sep 28 2017 http www newsweek com how-stone-interacted-russias-gucciferand-wikileaks-673268 139 140 Matt Dixon Marc Caputo Hacked DCCC docs dish on strategy and scandal for Florida congressional candidates Politico Aug 16 2016 https www politico com states florida story 2016 08 dccc-hack-unearths-dirt-on-partys-owncandidates-104744 141 Id Andrew Blake Roger Stone Trump confidant acknowledges 'innocuous' Twitter conversation With DNC hackers Wash Times Mar 10 2017 https www washingtontimes com news 2017 mar 10 roger-stone-trump-confidantacknowledges-innocuous 142 143 Id 144 Robert Windrem William M Arkin Trump Told Russia To Blame for Hacks Long Before 2016 Debate NBC News Oct 10 2016 https www nbcnews com news us-news trump-wastold-russia-was-blame-hacks-long-debate-n663686 10 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 106 of 111 145 Rosalind S Helderman Tom Hamburger Rachel Weiner At Height of Russia Tensions Trump Campaign Chair Manafort Met With Business Associate from Ukraine Wash Post June 19 2017 https www washingtonpost com politics at-height-of-russia-tensions-trumpcampaign-chairman-manafort-met-with-business-associate-from-ukraine 2017 06 18 6ab8485c4c5d-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story html utm_term ff9630ce9209 146 Statement of the Offense United States v Alex Van Der Zwaan No 18-cr-00031-ABJ D D C March 27 2018 147 Kaczynski et al supra note 129 148 Shelby Holliday Peter Nicholas Rebecca Ballhaus Jerome Corsi Says Roger Stone Sought 'Cover Story' for 2016 Tweet Wall St J Nov 28 2018 https www wsj com articles jeromecorsi-says-roger-stone-sought-to-cover-up-podesta-tweet-1543363107 149 Shelby Holliday Rob Barry Roger Stone Sought Information on Clinton From Assange Emails Show Wall St J May 24 2018 https www wsj com articles roger-stone-soughtinformation-on-clinton-from-assange-emails-show-1527191428 150 Roger Stone Joins Herald Drive Discussing 2016 Election Boston Herald Radio Sept 16 2016 https soundcloud com bostonherald roger-stone-joins-herald-drive-discussing-2016election-1 151 Julia Ioffe The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr and WikiLeaks The Atlantic Nov 13 2017 https www theatlantic com politics archive 2017 11 the-secretcorrespondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks 545738 see also House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence supra note 106 152 Ioffe supra note 151 153 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter Oct 12 2016 9 46 AM https twitter com realdonaldtrump status 786201435486781440 154 Kaczynski et al supra note 129 Media Matters Staff Trump Adviser Roger Stone Says He's Been Assured Through An Assange Intermediary That The Mother Lode Is Coming Media Matters for America Oct 3 2016 https www mediamatters org video 2016 10 03 trump-adviser-roger-stone-says-he-sbeen-assured-through-assange-intermediary-mother-lode-coming 213488 155 156 Hamburger et al supra note 136 157 The Podesta Emails WikiLeaks Oct 7 2016 https wikileaks org podesta-emails 158 Leaks WikiLeaks https wikileaks org -Leaks- html last visited Apr 11 2018 Natasha Bertrand Roger Stone's Secret Messages with WikiLeaks The Atlantic Feb 27 2018 https www theatlantic com politics archive 2018 02 roger-stones-secret-messages-withwikileaks 554432 159 160 Alexandra Berzon Rob Barry How Alleged Russian Hacker Teamed Up With Florida GOP Operative Wall St J May 25 2017 11 33 PM https www wsj com articles how-allegedrussian-hacker-teamed-up-with-florida-gop-operative-1495724787 11 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 107 of 111 161 Id 162 Rosalind S Helderman Manuel Roig-Franzia Charges Against Russian Intelligence Officers Intensify Spotlight on Trump Adviser Roger Stone Wash Post July 13 2018 https www washingtonpost com politics charges-against-russian-intelligence-officers-intensifyspotlight-on-trump-adviser-roger-stone 2018 07 13 ba0d0caa-86bb-11e8-8553a3ce89036c78_story html utm_term 8729e904dc94 163 July 13 Indictment at 43 Guccifer2 Trump's Taxes Clinton Campaign Prepares A New Provocation Wordpress Oct 18 2016 https guccifer2 wordpress com 2016 10 18 trumps-taxes 164 165 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter July 24 2016 6 16 PM https twitter com realdonaldtrump status 757338816487235584 166 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter July 24 2016 5 53 PM https twitter com realdonaldtrump status 757332905047752704 167 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter July 25 2016 7 31 AM https twitter com realdonaldtrump status 757538729170964481 168 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter Oct 12 2016 9 46 AM https twitter com realdonaldtrump status 786201435486781440 169 Donald Trump Jr @DonaldJTrumpJr Twitter Oct 14 2016 9 34 AM https twitter com DonaldJTrumpJr status 786923210512142336 170 Ioffe supra note 151 171 WikiLeaks @wikileaks Twitter Apr 21 2017 7 10 AM https twitter com wikileaks status 855378158379573248 172 Chuck Todd Mark Murray Carrie Dann How Trump Took Advantage of Russian Interference Amplifying Wikileaks NBC News Feb 19 2018 https www nbcnews com politics first-read how-trump-took-advantage-russian-interferenceamplifying-wikileaks-n849326 173 Id 174 Id 175 Id 176 Id 177 WikiLeaks @wikileaks Twitter Nov 6 2016 5 39 PM https twitter com wikileaks status 795440430259335168 lang en 178 Id 179 Zoya Sheftalovich Russia cheers Trump victory Politico Nov 9 2016 https www politico eu article russia-cheers-trump-victory-republican-nato 180 Id 12 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 108 of 111 181 Bertrand supra note 159 182 Jim Heintz Matthew Lee Russia Eyes Better Ties with Trump Says Contacts Underway Assoc Press Nov 11 2016 https apnews com 323f28f7f5e242498f43e4a7188336bc trumpselection-boosts-kremlin-hopes-better-relations 183 Kaitlan Collins The Trump officials who denied Russia contact CNN Politics July 12 2017 https www cnn com 2017 07 11 politics trump-campaign-denials-russiacontact index html 184 Noah Kirsch The Full Exclusive Interview Emin Agalarov Russian Scion At Center Of Trump Controversy Forbes July 12 2017 https www forbes com sites noahkirsch 2017 07 12 the-full-exclusive-interview-eminagalarov-russian-donald-trump-jr-controversy #2e4112b569d0 Rod Rosenstein's Letter Appointing Mueller Special Counsel May 17 2017 available at https www nytimes com interactive 2017 05 17 us politics document-Robert-Mueller-SpecialCounsel-Russia html 185 186 Del Quentin Wilber Byron Tau Special Counsel Robert Mueller Impanels Washington Grand Jury in Russia Probe Wall St J Aug 3 2017 https www wsj com articles specialcounsel-mueller-impanels-washington-grand-jury-in-russia-probe-1501788287 187 Craig Timberg Tony Romm Elizabeth Dwoskin Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S Mueller III says report prepared for Senate Wash Post Dec 17 2018 https www washingtonpost com business technology russian-disinformation-teams-targetedrobert-s-mueller-iii-says-report-prepared-for-senate 2018 12 17 0e0047f6-0230-11e9-81864ec26a485713_story html utm_term 58704bb0f9f7 Natasha Bertrand Roger Stone's Shifting Story Is a Liability The Atlantic Nov 3 2018 https www theatlantic com politics archive 2018 11 roger-stones-murky-relationshipwikileaks 574852 188 189 Matt Zapotosky Why Jared Kushner has had to update his disclosure of foreign contacts more than once Wash Post July 17 2017 https www washingtonpost com world nationalsecurity why-jared-kushner-has-had-to-update-his-disclosure-of-foreign-contacts-more-thanonce 2017 07 17 b04e8158-6b05-11e7-96ab5f38140b38cc_story html utm_term ecde404e4fe2 Callum Borchers Roger Stone's defiant congressional testimony on Trump and Russia annotated Wash Post Sept 26 2017 https www washingtonpost com news thefix wp 2017 09 26 roger-stones-defiant-congressional-testimony-on-trump-and-russiaannotated 190 Manuel Roig-Franzia Roger Stone helped Donald Trump get elected president - now he's helping himself Wash Post Apr 19 2017 https www washingtonpost com lifestyle style roger-stone-a-master-of-dark-political-arts-isplaying-the-russia-scandal-for-all-its-worth 2017 04 18 1518184e-236f-11e7-b5039d616bd5a305_story html utm_term a3d7b31d2ec1 191 13 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 109 of 111 Renato Mariotti Method to the Madness Dissecting Roger Stone's Statement to Congress by a Former Fed Prosecutor Just Security Sept 26 2017 192 https www justsecurity org 45404 method-madness-dissecting-roger-stones-statementcongress 193 Draft Statement of the Offense supra note 131 194 Id Guardian Staff Roger Stone 'dropped off card' for Julian Assange at embassy The Guardian Feb 1 2018 https www theguardian com media 2018 feb 01 roger-stone-dropped-off-cardfor-julian-assange-at-embassy 195 196 Collins supra note 183 Liam Stack Donald Trump Jr 's Two Different Explanations for Russian Meeting N Y Times July 9 2017 https www nytimes com 2017 07 09 us donald-trump-jrs-two-differentexplanations-for-russian-meeting html 197 198 Id 199 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Report on Russian Active Measures H R Doc Mar 22 2018 available at https www documentcloud org documents 4448600House-Intel-Final-Report html 200 David Willman Giuliani comment focuses attention on campaign huddle two days before Trump Tower meeting L A Times Aug 1 2018 https www latimes com politics la-na-polgiuliani-russia-meeting-20180801-story html READ Jared Kushner's statement on Russia to congressional committees CNN Politics July 24 2017 https www cnn com 2017 07 24 politics jared-kushner-statement-russia-2016election index html 201 202 Ellen Nakashima Adam Entous Greg Miller Russian ambassador told Moscow that Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Kremlin Wash Post May 26 2017 https www washingtonpost com world national-security russian-ambassador-told-moscow-thatkushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin 2017 05 26 520a14b4-422d-11e79869-bac8b446820a_story html utm_term 647da5a4d865 203 WikiLeaks @wikileaks Twitter July 29 2017 4 44 PM https twitter com wikileaks status 891444244619120644 204 S Comm on the Judiciary Robert Goldstone Exhibits https www judiciary senate gov imo media doc Goldstone%201%20Exhibits_redacted pdf S Comm on the Judiciary Interview of Robert Goldstone Transcript Dec 15 2017 https www judiciary senate gov imo media doc Goldstone%201%20Transcript_redacted pdf 205 Statement of the Offense supra note 60 at 33-34 206 Bertrand supra note 188 207 Id 14 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 110 of 111 208 Id 209 Draft Statement of the Offense supra note 131 210 Phillip Bump A timeline of the Roger Stone-WikiLeaks question Wash Post Oct 30 2018 https www washingtonpost com politics 2018 10 30 timeline-roger-stone-wikileaksquestion utm_term a2c4706e8e47 211 Id 212 Testimony of Natalia Veselnitskaya Before the U S S Comm on the Judiciary Nov 20 2017 https www judiciary senate gov imo media doc 2017-1120%20Veselnitskaya%20to%20CEG%20 June%209%20Meeting pdf 213 Sharon LaFraniere Andrew E Kramer Talking Points Brought to Trump Tower Meeting Were Shared With Kremlin N Y Times Oct 27 2017 https www nytimes com 2017 10 27 us politics trump-tower-veselnitskaya-russia html 214 Id 215 Indictment supra note 104 216 Dan Friedman Roger Stone Offered to Assistant His Alleged WikiLeaks Source With Legal Expenses Mother Jones Sept 25 2018 https www motherjones com politics 2018 09 rogerstone-offered-to-assist-his-alleged-wikileaks-source-randy-credico-with-legal-expenses 217 Shelby Holiday Aruna Viswanatha Mueller Probes Possible Witness Intimidation by Roger Stone Wall St J Nov 14 2018 https www wsj com articles mueller-probes-possiblewitness-intimidation-by-roger-stone-1542222284 218 Dan Friedman Text Messages Show Roger Stone Was Working to Get A Pardon for Julian Assange Mother Jones Oct 25 2018 https www motherjones com politics 2018 10 textmessages-show-roger-stone-was-working-to-get-a-pardon-for-wikileaks-julian-assange 219 Id 220 Id 221 Draft Statement of the Offense supra note 131 Michael S Schmidt Sharon LaFraniere Maggie Haberman Manafort's Lawyer Said to Brief Trump Attorney's on What He Told Mueller N Y Times Nov 27 2018 https www nytimes com 2018 11 27 us politics manafort-lawyer-trump-cooperation html 222 223 Joint Status Report United States v Manafort No 17-cr-00201-ABJ D D C Nov 26 2018 224 Id Government's Submission in Support of its Breach Determination United States v Manafort No 17-cr-00201-ABJ D D C Dec 7 2018 225 226 Manafort Response supra note 57 227 Government's Submission in Support of its Breach Determination supra note 225 15 Case 1 18-cv-03501-JGK Document 217 Filed 01 18 19 Page 111 of 111 Kevin Poulsen Andrew Desiderio Russian Hackers' New Target a Vulnerable Democratic Senator Daily Beast July 26 2018 https www thedailybeast com russianhackers-new-target-a-vulnerable-democratic-senator see also Ellen Nakashima Claire McCaskill a vulnerable Democrat running for reelection targeted in hacking attempt by Russian spies Wash Post July 26 2018 https www washingtonpost com world nationalsecurity claire-mccaskill-a-vulnerable-democrat-running-for-reelection-targeted-in-hackingattempt-by-russian-spies 2018 07 26 215312dc-9126-11e8-bcd59d911c784c38_story html utm_term ec6e26df3f0e 228 229 Poulsen Desiderio supra note 228 Jen Kirby The US intel chief just said Russian interference is continuing Vox Aug 2 2018 https www vox com policy-and-politics 2018 8 2 17644744 russia-interferencemidterms-fbi-intelligence-dan-coats-christopher-wray-trump 230 231 Amazon Atlas WikiLeaks Oct 11 2018 https wikileaks org amazon-atlas 232 Marcy Wheeler Information in Amended DNC Lawsuit Reveals that Roger Stone is at Significantly Greater Risk for CFAA Indictment Emptywheel Dec 9 2018 https www emptywheel net 2018 12 09 information-in-amended-dnc-lawsuit-reveals-thatroger-stone-is-at-significantly-greater-risk-for-cfaa-indictment 233 Peter Baker Trump and Putin Have Met Five Times What Was Said Is a Mystery N Y Times Jan 15 2019 https www nytimes com 2019 01 15 us politics trump-putinmeetings html Michael McFaul The Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki was a historic event - in the worst possible way Wash Post July 17 2018 https www washingtonpost com news globalopinions wp 2018 07 17 the-trump-putin-summit-in-helsinki-was-a-historic-event-in-the-worstpossible-way utm_term 4dc32a21446f 234 235 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter Sept 16 2018 7 20 AM https twitter com realDonaldTrump status 1041330897948160002 236 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter Nov 27 2018 4 42 AM https twitter com realDonaldTrump status 1067398375337791488 237 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter Aug 22 2018 6 21 AM https twitter com realDonaldTrump status 1032256443985084417 238 Donald J Trump @realDonaldTrump Twitter Dec 3 2018 7 48 AM https twitter com realDonaldTrump status 1069619316319035392 239 Julian E Barnes and Helene Cooper Trump Discussed Pulling U S From NATO Aides Say Amid New Concerns Over Russia N Y Times Jan 14 2019 https www nytimes com 2019 01 14 us politics nato-president-trump html John Hudson Paul Sonne Anton Troianovski Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria marks a win for Putin Wash Post Dec 20 2018 https www washingtonpost com world national-security trumps-withdrawal-from-syria-marksa-win-for-putin 2018 12 20 59c685e8-0491-11e9-b5df5d3874f1ac36_story html noredirect on utm_term 35d6fcab5b7e 240 16 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu