Wisconsin GOP operative Mark Block details Cambridge Analytica meeting on yacht

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Wisconsin GOP operative Mark Block details Cambridge Analytica meeting on yacht

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/29/wisconsin-operative-mark-block-details-meetings-between-cambridge-analytica-and-its-billionaire-back/466691002/




......Along with pumping $15 million into Cambridge Analytica, the Mercers had been a primary financial supporter of Breitbart under Bannon's leadership. But they have since cut ties with Bannon over his comments about Trump and his family in the book "Fire and Fury" and his involvement in an Alabama Senate race.

Block isn't the only Wisconsin connection to Cambridge Analytica.

Several former campaign staffers for Republican Gov. Scott Walker went on to work for the company.

Emily Cornell, who served as deputy campaign manager for Walker's short-lived presidential campaign, went on to become Cambridge's senior vice president of political affairs.

Matt Oczkowski, who worked on Walker's 2014 re-election bid and his 2016 presidential run, became head of product of Cambridge Analytica, working out of San Antonio.

Oczkowski declined to discuss his work for the firm.

And former Walker campaign staffer Molly Schweickert is now serving as vice president of global media for the company.

"This raises serious questions about the connections between Scott Walker’s 2014 re-election and 2015 presidential campaigns and this growing international scandal from the 2016 election that saw Wisconsin surprisingly go Republican for president for the first time in 32 years," said Analiese Eicher, program director at the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.




Mary Spicuzza and Daniel Bice, Milwaukee Published 6:30 a.m. CT March 29, 2018 | Updated 4:19 p.m. CT March 29, 2018





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(Photo: Genna Martin/Seattle PI)
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A veteran Wisconsin Republican operative is providing new details on how he brought together the controversial data-mining company Cambridge Analytica with its billionaire financial supporters and ex-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

GOP politico Mark Block described the key event as taking place in 2013 when he and Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix thought they were to meet billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah at a "grungy sports bar" on the Hudson River, according to Mother Jones magazine.

"We're going like, 'What the (expletive)?' " Block told the magazine.

The story continues: "Bekah texted to say she and her father would soon arrive. Moments later, Sea Owl, the Mercer family’s 203-foot superyacht, pulled up to the dock behind the sports bar."

Aboard the $75 million luxury craft were Bannon, then the head of far-right Breitbart News, and the Mercers.

"Whatever Nix told the Mercers that day in 2013, it worked," Mother Jones reported in its May/June issue. "They agreed to invest a reported $15 million in a new company."

That company would be named Cambridge Analytica, and it was part of the British-based SCL Group. Bannon was given a seat on its board and named vice president of Cambridge Analytica. The politically active Mercers would become its biggest financial supporters.

Dan Bice explains how longtime GOP operative Mark Block is a key player with the recent uproar over Cambridge Analytica and their use of data from over 50 million Facebook users.

RELATED: Wisconsin GOP operative Mark Block helped link Steve Bannon, Cambridge Analytica

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The company, which worked for President Donald Trump's campaign, is facing an international uproar following reports that it tried to influence the 2016 presidential election with data taken from more than 50 million Facebook users...........................