Lawmakers on Wednesday questioned the whistleblower at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica 2016 election scandal, probing him about allegations the company engaged in “black ops.”
The whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he repeated previously-made assertions about the company engaging in questionable activities with Russian and Israeli ex-intelligence operatives.
Under questioning from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Wylie said he first learned of these operations from Alexander Nix, the now-former CEO of Cambridge Analytica. Nix was suspended by the company in March, after video was released showing him boasting of using spies, sex workers, and illicit payments to gain compromising material on clients’ opponents.
In his prepared testimony, Wylie additionally implicated Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser, CEO of Breitbart News, and vice president of Cambridge Analytica.
“I have also seen internal [Cambridge Analytica] documents that make reference to using specialized technologies and intelligence gathering services from former members of Israeli and Russian state security services,” Wylie said.
“Mr Bannon was vice president at the time of some of these events,” he added.
Cambridge Analytica was co-founded by Bannon and Robert Mercer, a billionaire far-right activist who also formerly funded Breitbart. In 2017, Mercer sold his stake in the publication to daughter Rebekah.
In recent months, it has been reported that Cambridge Analytica inappropriately used Facebook data to influence the 2016 election on behalf of Donald Trump.
The effort allegedly impacted 87 million users in the United States and was centered around a personality quiz operated by Alexander Kogan, an academic with a post at St. Petersburg University and grant funding from the Russian government.
Last week, it was also reported that in May 2017, Trump staffers hired a security firm run by ex-Israeli intelligence operatives to spy on and discredit Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl–White House officials during the Obama administration. The campaign was designed “to orchestrate a ‘dirty ops’ campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal,” according to The Observer.
While the publication did not name the firm involved. previous reporting by The New Yorker claims the company is Black Cube–an entity once allegedly hired by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to uncover compromising information on some of the victims of his many sexual assaults.
Kahl first found out about Black Cube’s “smear campaign” against him and Rhodes one week before the story broke. According to NPR, he learned of the revelations from reporters working for The Observer and its sister publication, The Guardian.
“They asked if I had any information about it or ever heard about it, and I hadn’t,” Kahl said.
On Wednesday, Wylie said Cambridge Analytica didn’t have any contracts with Black Cube while he worked for the former. Wylie was Director of Research for Cambridge Analytica and SCL, a partner company, from mid-2013 until late 2014.
But the whistleblower did make oblique references to specific links between the companies, when prompted by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
The lawmaker cited Wylie having described an unidentified woman as playing “a pivotal role in the relationship between Cambridge Analytica and Black Cube.”
“I don’t know if I should bring her name into this hearing, but do you know who I’m referring to?” Whitehouse asked.
Wylie replied that he did, eventually describing the “pivotal role,” as he saw it.
“As she testified at [UK] Parliament, she made an introduction to a group of Israelis to Cambridge Analytica,” Wylie said.
“And they’re the ones who work through the Black Cube corporation or entity?” Whitehouse responded.
“You’ll have to ask Cambridge Analytica and Black Cube that,” Wylie remarked. Neither man identified the woman in question.
A Canadian national living in Britain, Wylie testified last month before British Parliament. He told MPs that Cambridge Analytica hired Black Cube to help hack compromising data about a client’s opponent in the 2015 Nigerian presidential election.
Black Cube “categorically” denied the allegations and said that Wylie’s testimony is “a flagrant lie.”
According to reporting published Tuesday by The New York Times, Wylie is now cooperating with federal law enforcement officials investigating Cambridge Analytica.
