Special Counsel studies Trump campaign ties to Cambridge Analytics, sources say
Source: ABC News

As questions have mounted about data firm Cambridge Analytica’s alleged misuse of Facebook data from up to 50 million user profiles, it has not only caught the eye of Congressional investigators but also the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team for the last several weeks has had a growing interest to better understand the relationship between the campaign, the Republican National Committee, and Cambridge Analytica, sources tell ABC News.

The company is also under investigation by British officials for its use of Facebook users’ data.

Sources tell ABC News several digital experts who worked in support of Trump’s bid in 2016 have met with Mueller's team for closed-door interviews. The staffers, most of whom were employed by the RNC, served as key members of the 2016 operation working closely with the campaign and the data firm, the sources said. The company worked closely with the Republican candidate’s political team.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/special-counsel-studies-trump-campaign-ties-cambridge-analytics/story?id=53903252

EXCLUSIVE: Fired FBI official authorized criminal probe of Sessions, sources say

According to the sources, McCabe authorized the criminal inquiry after a top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and then-Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., wrote a letter in March 2017 to the FBI urging agents to investigate "all contacts" Sessions may have had with Russians, and "whether any laws were broken in the course of those contacts or in any subsequent discussion of whether they occurred."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-fired-fbi-official-authorized-criminal-probe-sessions/story?id=53914006

BREAKING: Cambridge Analytica story worked with hackers who stole emails from two current heads of state. My latest.
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976539356654653440
This story took MONTHS to stand up. But I have seven sources on record and eyewitness accounts. Israeli hackers worked alongside Cambridge Analytica and hacked current president of Nigeria & prime minister of St Kitts.
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976540268831956992
Emails included medical records of President Buhari. Cambridge Analytica was working for his opponent, Goodluck Jonathan. Staff told to search for 'kompromat'. Dirt to smear him with.
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976541320142622720
NEW: In 2015, Cambridge Analytica director, Brittany Kaiser, introduced computer hackers to Cambridge Analytica employees who say they stole the President of Nigeria's personal emails. Kaiser later appeared on launch panel of @Nigel_Farage's @LeaveEUOfficial campaign.
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976542497949315072

Cambridge Analytica was offered politicians' hacked emails, witnesses say

Hackers offered personal data about future Nigerian president and future PM of St Kitts and Nevis, sources say

The data analytics firm that worked on the Donald Trump election campaign was offered material from Israeli hackers who had accessed the private emails of two politicians who are now heads of state, witnesses have told the Guardian.

Multiple sources have described how senior directors of Cambridge Analytica – including its chief executive, Alexander Nix – gave staff instructions to handle material provided by computer hackers in election campaigns in Nigeria and St Kitts and Nevis.

They claim there were two episodes in 2015 that alarmed members of staff and led them to refuse to handle the data, which they assumed would have been obtained illegally.

SCL Elections, Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, denied taking possession of or using hacked or stolen personal information from such individuals for any purpose in either campaign.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/cambridge-analytica-offered-politicians-hacked-emails-witnesses-say?CMP=share_btn_tw

Trump used a campaign strategy firm run by his campaign manager that decided the best way to appeal through voters was a combination of racism of authoritarianism. They literally tested Nazism on their focus groups and decided it was a winning message.

https://twitter.com/TheViewFromLL2/status/976257698042994688

Exclusive: Russia Secretly Helped Venezuela Launch a Cryptocurrency to Evade U.S. Sanctions

President Donald Trump may not have realized on Monday that his executive order would step on Russia’s toes. Its official target was Venezuela, specifically the country’s plan to create the world’s first state-backed cryptocurrency, the petro, which went on sale Tuesday.

But behind the scenes, the petro was in fact a collaboration—a half-hidden joint venture between Venezuelan and Russian officials and businessmen, whose aim was to erode the power of U.S. sanctions, sources familiar with the effort told TIME.

Trump’s executive order did not mention the petro’s Russian backers, whose role has not previously been reported. Citing economic sanctions that the U.S. imposed against Venezuela in August, the order simply made clear that anyone who buys or uses the new cryptocurrency would be in breach of those sanctions, as would anyone under U.S. jurisdiction who helps Venezuela develop the petro. “Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited,” the document states.

That may be why the Russians involved in this operation have been keen to remain in the shadows, in part through a clumsy online campaign to obscure their role in the project. But a TIME investigation has found Moscow’s fingerprints all over the creation of the petro, a scheme that reveals the range of Russia’s efforts to fight back against U.S. sanctions.

... snip

Both men have ties to major Russian banks and billionaires close to the Kremlin. But they were not the most senior Russians involved. According to an executive at a Russian state bank who deals with cryptocurrencies, senior advisers to the Kremlin have overseen the effort in Venezuela, and President Vladimir Putin signed off on it last year. “People close to Putin, they told him this is how to avoid the sanctions,” says the executive, who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity. “This is how the whole thing started.”
More: http://time.com/5206835/exclusive-russia-petro-venezuela-cryptocurrency/

Just when you thought the forces of good had won....There's a new SCL or Cambridge Analytica clone in the UK called Emerdata with all the key figures
https://twitter.com/annmarlowe/status/976200461295456259
@WendySiegelman just noticed something BIG: there's a replacement for SCL Group/Cambridge Analytica already in the wings - new UK co has ex SCL CEO Alexander Nix, plus the Mercer daughters!

UPDATE: Emerdata Ltd created by SCL/Cambridge Analytica's Julian Wheatland, with Erik Prince's business partner Chun Shun Ko appointed director Jan '17 - just added Rebekah Mercer & Jennifer Mercer as directors, along w/Alexander Nix
https://twitter.com/WendySiegelman/status/976185167390920704

Journalists! There's a whole new rat's nest right here...
New Mercer-backed venture with Cambridge Analytica's newly-defenestrated Alexander Nix

(& kudos as ever to super-sleuth @WendySiegelman)
https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976188012798365696

Searching for that Deep State? We found em’ for you. Use of prostitutes & bribes to seduce & entrap politicians, spying on Americans, unethical data harvesting, spreading rumors, conspiracy theories, fake news, they did it all! Meet Cambridge Analytica:

https://twitter.com/ReaganBattalion/status/976116431707394048

Will Donald Trump’s Data-Analytics Company Allow Russia to Access Research on U.S. Citizens?
Tracing the suspicious-looking, and messy, ties between a Ukrainian oligarch, an elections-information firm, and the GOP candidate’s former campaign manager

By Ann Marlowe

The Trump campaign has hired Ted Cruz’s former data-analysis firm, Cambridge Analytica—and in doing so, it has connected itself with a British property tycoon, Vincent Tchenguiz, and through him with the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, a business associate of Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who resigned last week. It would be hard to find a better example of why the ownership of the companies that collect data on the American electorate matters.

What Cambridge does is what marketers have done for some time now: segment potential customers (in this case, voters) by their buying habits, lifestyle, and psychology. It most famously worked on the “Leave.” campaign during Brexit voting in the United Kingdom.

Cambridge Analytica’s British parent company, SCL, has attracted criticism for some unusual strategies, such as trying to persuade opposition supporters not to vote in a Nigerian election, using the influence of “local religious figures.”

More: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/211152/trump-data-analytics-russian-access