Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, which is investigating the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election and the connection between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russians, reportedly requested information from the data company that the Republican candidate’s campaign used during the election.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Mueller’s office has requested all emails from Cambridge Analytica’s employees who cooperated with Trump’s campaign. The emails had previously been turned over to the House Intelligence Committee.
Reportedly, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO Alexander Nix also interviewed with the House Intelligence Committee over video call this week. Earlier this year Nix was reported to have contacted with Rebekah Mercer, a top Trump donor, about better organizing the emails released by WikiLeaks, The Hill reminds.
Julian Assange, the founder and chief of WikiLeaks, confirmed on Twitter that Nix contacted him before the election and said that Nix’s request was declined. Cambridge Analytica’s CEO allegedly wanted to get the 33,000 emails deleted from Hillary Clinton’s private server that she was using during the time when she was leading the State Department.
“I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks,” Assange wrote on Twitter.
According to Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, ties between Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks were of “deep interest” to the committee. A person familiar with the matter said the House panel also asked Cambridge Analytica to preserve its data on Trump voters and supporters, but it hasn’t asked the firm to turn the data over.
Last month, former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with the Russians and promised to cooperate with Mueller’s probe. That took the investigation to a new level.
Previously, in October, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Richard Gates were indicted in the probe under charges of tax fraud and money laundering.
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