Scrutiny mounts for Trump digital operation

BY MORGAN CHALFANT - 10/27/17 06:01 AM EDT

Scrutiny on the digital side of President Trump’s 2016 campaign is mounting after revelations that the head of Cambridge Analytica, a data mining and analysis firm that worked for the campaign, contacted WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange about Hillary Clinton’s emails.

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Alexander Nix, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, told a third party that he reached out to the WikiLeaks founder last year about the emails that Hillary Clinton deleted from the server she used when working at the State Department.

The Trump campaign paid Cambridge Analytica millions during the 2016 presidential race. In the aftermath of the Assange revelations, aides have raced to distance the campaign from the firm.

The company, which is partially owned by the family of billionaire Trump supporter Robert Mercer, mines online data in order to target potential voters with personalized political messaging. It reportedly also worked on the British “Brexit” campaign.

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http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/357423-scrutiny-mounts-for-trump-digital-operation