Bernie Sanders' campaign filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee on Friday night after accusing it of trying to "undermine" the Vermont senator's White House bid, as the party's decision to suspend Sanders' access to a voter database roiled the presidential campaign on the eve of the latest debate.
The legal action filed in federal court late Friday argues that the party breached an agreement in preventing it from using a voter data file and seeks "immediate restoration" of its access, damages "presently known to exceed $75,000" and other relief the court deems "just and proper."
The DNC suspended Sanders' access to the party's voter database after four of the Vermont senator's staffers accessed data belonging to rival Hillary Clinton's campaign. Josh Uretsky, the Sanders campaign’s national data director, was fired and more disciplinary action may follow, said Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager.
Weaver, who pledged during the Friday press conference to take the DNC to federal court if it didn't lift the suspension, suggested the move was part of the DNC’s “pattern of conduct” to help the Clinton campaign and pointed to debates being held on Saturday nights as another example.
"The leadership of the Democratic National Committee is now actively attempting to undermine our campaign," Weaver said. "It's impossible to mobilize the kind of grass-roots campaign we have without that data. We are, because of the nature of our campaign, peculiarly affected by this type of taking of data hostage by the DNC