Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has not been consulted on the DNC’s civil lawsuit alleging collusion between Russia, WikiLeaks, and the Trump campaign.

Perez said on NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday he hadn’t talked to Clinton ahead of the DNC filing the lawsuit.

“I have not consulted Hillary Clinton to ask her permission to file a complaint. The buck stops with Tom Perez and we filed this complaint because our democracy is at risk,” Perez said. “This was an assault on our democracy and we have to protect that.”

Perez said the DNC took the unusual step of filing a civil lawsuit alleging collusion between the Russians and Trump because he couldn’t wait for special counsel Robert Mueller to end his investigation.

Mueller is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Perez said the collusion is far more clear than is known publicly.

“We have seen a mountain of evidence of collusion between the campaign and the Russians to basically affect our democracy. And so we did our homework and we brought our civil case,” he said.

He added, “- Well, we know why I think they have failed to impose sufficient costs on Russia for this dramatic and reckless and unprecedented hack. Because this administration is compromised. I want to make sure we send a very clear signal.“