Washington, D.C. – Top House Democrats, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter, below, to several Trump campaign consultants to demand information regarding their campaign operations, whether they engaged with known hostile foreign actors such as Wikileaks, cooperated with foreign governments, or used misappropriated data during the 2016 election.
The letter is addressed to Cambridge Analytica, Giles-Parscale, TargetPoint Consulting, The Data Trust (aka GOP Data Trust) and Deep Root Analytics, which provided data analytics and voter analysis to the Trump campaign under a data operations team managed by Jared Kushner. The letter notes that “The campaign hired Giles-Parscale to run its San Antonio-based internet operation to maximize merchandise sales, heighten voter outrage, and discourage voter turnout in certain segments of the population. Cambridge Analytica provided the analysis to help choose the right targets for directed advertisements and other online media. The republican data firms Deep Root Analytics, TargetPoint, and Data Trust ‘were among the RNC-hired outfits working as the core of the Trump campaign’s 2016 general election data team.’”
Recent reports have stated that Cambridge Analytica and possibly other members of the Trump data operations team actively solicited Wikileaks -- a known hostile foreign intelligence actor -- to acquire stolen information.
In their letter, the Members wrote, “It is now clear that Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election involved the careful targeting of certain voters through social media and other online platforms. This targeting appears to have been executed with an extraordinary level of precision that suggests a deep familiarity with American voter preferences and habits and exceeds the reported capabilities of foreign cyber operations. As we assess legislation that addresses whether American businesses directly engaged with known hostile foreign actors such as Wikileaks, cooperated with foreign governments, or used misappropriated data, it is important we understand what happened…The prospect that any American company may have aided a foreign government, worked with hostile foreign actors, or benefited from unlawfully accessed information is concerning and could impact the consideration of ongoing legislation.”
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