Yep:
Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) asked Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) this week to hold a hearing and request documents from voter-profiling firm Cambridge Analytica following reports that the company exploited information from millions of Facebook users without their permission.
According to reports from The New York Times and Observer of London who spoke with a company whistleblower, Cambridge Analytica not only took and misused data from more than 50 million Facebook users, it reportedly used that information to influence users in favor of President Donald Trump’s campaign.
In a letter to Grassley, Feinstein called the reports “egregious” and “extremely troubling.”
“I believe the Judiciary Committee needs to look into exactly what happened,” Feinstein said. “That’s why I call on Chairman Grassley to join me in seeking testimony from Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix, whistleblower Christopher Wylie and Professor Aleksandr Kogan, who reportedly harvested the data from Facebook. I am also hopeful he will support document requests to Cambridge Analytica and Trump campaign officials.”
She said the company’s alleged actions could be violations of campaign finance laws and could be seen as part of a larger conspiracy to “defraud the United States.”
Here’s some more info:
Feinstein noted that she has already sent letters requesting information from Cambridge Analytica, as well as several Trump campaign officials connected to the firm. Those requests have been ignored, Feinstein said, and the judiciary committee has not taken any action on them.
Since Republicans are the majority in the Senate, it’s up to them to issue subpoenas and schedule hearings.
“As you know, last year I sent a number of letters seeking information from Cambridge Analytica and some of the individuals named in these media reports, including Brad Parscale, Dan Scavino, and Steve Bannon. These requests have been ignored, and the Committee has taken no additional action,” she wrote.
Feinstein’s letter was published just as London’s Channel 4 released an explosive undercover video in which top executives at Cambridge Analytica were caught admitting that they use bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians.
In the video, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix also described how the firm uses shadowy front companies, fake ID’s, and sub-contractors to operate secretly in elections across the world.
“These reports raise serious allegations, and the American people need to know how this happened, who knew about it, why steps were not taken sooner to bring it to an end, and what can be done to protect their privacy and the integrity of our elections going forward,” Feinstein added.
The Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica in June 2016. Jared Kushner, who was in charge of overseeing then-candidate Trump’s digital operations, brought the data firm into the campaign — a decision that was reportedly cheered on by Steve Bannon, a former vice president of Cambridge Analytica.
The data firm later came under scrutiny amid reports that the CEO had reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails. In another instance, Cambridge Analytica reportedly offered to assist WikiLeaks with the organization of emails that had been hacked from the DNC and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Click here to demand Grassley hold hearings on Cambridge Analytica.