Sen. Bernard Sanders told a federal court Friday he does not intend to pursue his lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee over his access to voter data files — but he kept the case open anyway, just in case the DNC backslides.

Last month DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz suspended Mr. Sanders from accessing the party’s voter files after she said his staffers were caught exploiting a computer breakdown to snoop through rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s files on the DNC’s system.

Mr. Sanders, a Vermont independent running for Democrats’ presidential nomination, apologized for his staff’s behavior and said he’d initiated an investigation into the wrongdoing. But he also said Ms. Wasserman Schultz had no power to instantly suspend his own access, which his campaign needs to develop a strategy for targeting voters in the primaries and caucuses.

Mr. Sanders sued, claiming the DNC had breached his contract for data access, and Ms. Wasserman Schultz relented.

The case had languished with Mr. Sanders never serving papers on the DNC, and Judge Tanya S. Chutkan earlier this week demanded Mr. Sanders make his intentions known.

Garvey Schubert Barer, Mr. Sanders‘ lawyer, said they are keeping options open.

“The parties are engaged in discussions and are continuing in their cooperative efforts to resolve the pending litigation. In light of these efforts, plaintiff does not intend to serve defendant at this time. However, if the parties are unable to resolve this dispute, plaintiff reserves the right to serve defendant before the expiration of the time limit for service,” the lawyer said.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure give Mr. Sanders up to 90 days to serve notice of his complaint on the DNC.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said it had been victimized by Mr. Sanders.

But Mr. Sanders said he’d alerted the DNC to problems with its system security earlier last year, and the party had ignored him.

Liberal activists seized on the issue, saying that by suspending Mr. Sanders‘ access to the voter files Ms. Wasserman Schultz was putting her finger on the scale for Mrs. Clinton.

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