A data firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign reached out to WikiLeaks during the campaign about obtaining emails related to Democrat Hillary Clinton, the company’s CEO said.
Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica, said the approach was in “early June 2016” after WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange had publicly claimed he had Clinton emails and planned to publish them. Nix said his company asked a speaker’s agency representing Assange whether WikiLeaks “might share that information,” but Assange turned him down.
Nix’s comments Thursday at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, were his first acknowledgement that he had sought emails from WikiLeaks. Assange had previously told The Associated Press that WikiLeaks had rejected a “request for information” from Cambridge Analytica. The Wall Street Journal first reported Nix’s comments.
Cambridge Analytica’s role in the president’s campaign has caught the attention of congressional committees probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and any possible coordination with Trump associates. The company is backed by Robert Mercer, a billionaire Trump supporter. Before joining the Trump administration, former White House strategist Steve Bannon also served as a vice president at the company.
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