Bernie Sanders Campaign Spokesman Announces Potential Lawsuit Against DNC 

At a Friday press conference, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver threatened to sue the Democratic National Committee for withholding voter data from their campaign.

On Thursday, the DNC accused the Sanders campaign of illicitly accessing confidential information from the Clinton campaign during a brief firewall glitch in the DNC’s database. The Sanders campaign fired the staffer in question, but blamed the DNC for allowing such a glitch to happen in the first place; in turn, the DNC is refusing to allow the Sanders campaign to access its data until they provide evidence that they aren’t holding on to any Clinton information.

In a press conference today, Weaver blasted the DNC’s “incompetence” in securing campaign data (although he added that “it should not have been looked at, period”), claimed that they are holding the data “hostage” in a bald attempt to help out the Clinton campaign, and threatened to sue.

“This is the information about our supporters, our volunteers, the lists of people we intend to contact in Iowa, New Hampshire, and elsewhere,” Weaver said. “If the DNC continues to hold our data hostage, and continues to try to attack the heart and soul of our grassroots campaign, we will be in federal court this afternoon seeking immediate relief.”

Weaver also mentioned the controversial democratic debate schedule, signaling that this was potentially part of a larger attempt to edge Sanders out of the running:

“I don’t know the motivation of every single person of the DNC, but I think if you look at a pattern of conduct, we obviously have concern about the Saturday night debate schedule and its impact on the ability of campaigns to get their message out. Clearly in this case it looks like they are trying to help the Clinton campaign.”

According to NPR, the DNC has ordered an audit of the breach “to ensure that this isolated incident does not happen again.”