Fourteen former national security officials have filed an amicus brief in a district court case against Donald Trump and Roger Stone.
The lawsuit was filed in July by three private citizens — Roy Cockrum, Scott Comer, and Eric Schoenberg — whose personal information was stolen in hacks of the Democratic National Committee and published by WikiLeaks. The plaintiffs have argued that the Trump campaign, Stone, "and those they conspired with arranged for the hacked information to be provided to WikiLeaks."
The Trump campaign and Stone have filed motions to dismiss the complaint. The plaintiffs responded on December 1, laying out, among other things, a "motive to collaborate" between the campaign and Russia, as well as points of contact.
Three of the 14 amicus brief signees are members of CIR's Advisory Board: James Clapper (Former Director of National Intelligence), General Michael Hayden (Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency), and Michael Morell (Former Acting Director of the CIA).
Business Insider explains the point of the brief is to draw attention to how "the Kremlin uses local actors to help amplify the scope and impact of its influence operations, including the one targeting the US election in 2016."
The cutouts can range from "the unwitting accomplice who is manipulated to act in what he believes is his best interest, to the ideological or economic ally who broadly shares Russian interests, to the knowing agent of influence who is recruited or coerced to directly advance Russian operations and objectives," the former officials wrote.
Cutouts can be anyone, they explained, from journalists and academics to "prominent pro-Russian businessmen."
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Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia who helped write the brief, said the goal was "to inform the court, and by extension the American public, about the subversive character of Russian 'active measures' campaigns."
Full story: Former high-level officials submit 'unusual' Russia brief in lawsuit against Trump and Roger Stone (Business Insider)