MIAMI – In a recently released YouTube video, attorney Jared H. Beck of the Miami-based law firm Beck & Lee Trial Lawyers discusses the class-action complaint his office filed on June 28 against the former Democratic National Committee Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
This is the first of many consequences the Democratic Party may face after allegations of manipulating millions of voters during the Democratic primaries.
“Many asked, ‘what is the ultimate goal of this lawsuit?’ It is an effort as attorneys to give a voice in the political system to all those who have been defrauded by the conduct of the DNC in supporting and promoting Hilary Clinton’s candidacy in violation of its own charter that requires it to be neutral,” he said in the video. “And of course, those individuals are those who gave an enormous amount of money to Bernie Sanders and his campaign.”
Democratic National Convention Signs in front of Philadelphia's City Hall
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Beck said that people part of the lawsuit range from lawyers and doctors who gave thousands of dollars to purchase billboard advertising to promote Sanders, to people who are unemployed or even homeless, but they still scraped up enough money to give to Sanders' campaign.
Despite the financial setbacks of Sanders supporters, Beck wanted to be clear about one thing: this case is not about money.
“I don’t think you can put a dollar figure on American democracy and, at the end of the day, I truly believe American democracy is what is at stake in this lawsuit,” he said. “The conduct of the DNC is manifestly undemocratic. Candidates are not supposed to be picked behind closed doors and sold to the population through manipulation and deceit.”
The goal of this lawsuit is to ultimately get changes made, he explained.
“The DNC needs to act in accordance with its charter in order to give democracy a fighting chance in this country,” he said. “How will this lawsuit relate to the political process? This lawsuit is exempt from the political process, but in terms of the political fight, that fight is not over yet.”
Beck proceeded to break down the lawsuit's claims, explaining the importance of each.
“There are essentially six legal claims we are asserting in this lawsuit on behalf of the composed class members,” Beck said. “The first is a claim for fraud - against the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz - based on the revelations from the recent Guccifer 2.0 documents purportedly taken from the DNC’s own computer network.”
The Guccifer 2.0 documents include internal memos that revealed how the DNC allegedly broke legally binding neutrality agreements in the Democratic primaries by strategizing to make Hillary Clinton the nominee before any votes were cast.
The second claim filed is for negligent misrepresentation. The third claim accuses the DNC and Wasserman Schultz of participating in deceptive conduct while claiming the DNC was neutral during the Democratic primaries, despite overwhelming evidence that reveals favoritism of Clinton.
The fourth claim seeks retribution of any monetary donations from the DNC to Bernie Sanders’ campaign. The fifth claim alleges that the DNC broke its fiduciary duties during the Democratic primaries to members of the Democratic Party by not holding a fair election process. The sixth claim accuses the DNC of negligence for not protecting donor information, since hackers broke into the DNC networks, potentially compromising their personal information.
The 20,000 freshly leaked emails allegedly reveal resentful disdain toward Sanders, as party purportedly favored Clinton long before any votes were cast.
On July 25, the Democratic National Convention began in Philadelphia and Wikileaks recently announced that it is releasing thousands of DNC emails.
What these emails are supposed to show is that instead of treating Sanders with impartiality, the DNC exhibited resentment toward him and the thousands of disenfranchised voters he could have brought into the party.
Based on these most recent findings, Wasserman Schultz resigned.
Furthermore, the ink wasn’t dried on the resignation signature before Clinton hired her as a top official for her campaign as honorary chairman of the “50-state” program.