Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates requested online manipulation plans by an Israeli intelligence firm during the 2016 presidential campaign to create fake online identities in an attempt to defeat then-candidate Hillary Clinton as well as Republican primary opponents.
The New York Times reported Monday that Gates made the request at a time when Russians were in the midst of their own efforts to aid then-candidate Donald Trump, adding that the two were not connected. There is also no evidence that the Trump campaign acted on any of the proposals by Psy-Group.
However, interviews and documents obtained by the Times show that the senior Trump aide was promised a disruption effort to swing voters in Trump’s favor. People familiar with the interviews said that copies of the proposals have already been obtained by the special counsel and his team, who are investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians.
The newspaper adds that the owner of the company, Joel Zamel, met with Donald Trump Jr. in August 2016, but for now is not a target of Robert Mueller’s investigation. He was interviewed by the special counsel’s investigators last year.
“Mueller has clarified from day one that Joel and his company have never been a target of the investigation and that Joel provided full cooperation to the government to assist in their investigation and we’ve never heard from them since,” Zamel’s attorney said in a statement to CNN.
He further claimed that “Zamel never pitched, or otherwise discussed, any of Psy-Group’s proposals relating to the U.S. elections with anyone related to the Trump campaign, including not with Donald Trump Jr.”
Gates solicited one proposal to use social media manipulation and sway 5,000 Republican National Convention delegates in order to defeat Senator Ted Cruz, who at the time was Trump’s main opponent, and another proposal to gather intelligence about Clinton and people close to her. A third proposal by Psy-Group outlined a plan to use social media to expose or amplify division among rival campaigns and factions.
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