Sanders Campaign Says It May Sue Democratic Party

The Bernie Sanders campaign is threatening to sue the Democratic National Committee in federal court for restricting its access to voter information, the AP reports. The campaign was cut off from its voter database after accusations it accessed similar data belonging to the Clinton campaign. But Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver says that was an "inappropriate overreaction" on the part of the DNC, according to CNN. The AP reports Weaver claims the DNC is "actively attempting to undermine" the Sanders campaign. "Individual leaders of the DNC can support Hillary Clinton in any way they want, but they are not going to sabotage our campaign," Politico quotes Weaver, who also described the voter data as being "stolen" and held "hostage" by the DNC.

The Clinton voter data was available to the Sanders campaign because of a software error, Politico reports. The fired staffer who accessed the data claims he was only trying to find out how badly the glitch had compromised the Sanders campaign's own data, according to CNN. Without access to its database, the Sanders campaign could have a hard time reaching out to voters a day before the third Democratic presidential debate and weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Weaver called the voter database the campaign's "lifeblood," Politico reports. The DNC has said it will consider whether or not to restore the campaign's access to its data after it gets a report on how the Clinton data was used and confirmation all copies have been destroyed. (More Bernie Sanders stories.)