Top executives of Cambridge Analytica (Cambridge) – the company that credits itself with helping Donald Trump win the presidency through its improper use of Facebook data – have been secretly filmed boasting about how they could fix elections by entrapping political candidates.
Their proposed techniques included using bribes and Ukrainian sex workers to put the candidates in compromising positions which were captured on video and then posted to the internet. The secret filming of Cambridge executives was part of an undercover operation by the U.K. news site, Channel 4 News.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s election consultants filmed offering to entrap politicians in compromising situations by using bribes. https://t.co/Swdr4jL0NA #CambridgeAnalyticaUncovered
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— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) March 19, 2018
The chief executive of Cambridge, Alexander Nix, has admitted that his U.K. based company has secretly been involved in political campaigns in elections across the globe. They operate through a network of shady organizations and often use sub-contractors to implement their dirty tricks.
In one transaction recorded by Channel 4 News, when asked how he got dirt on political opponents, Nix offered to “send some girls around to the candidate’s house.” He actually recommended using Ukrainian girls because “are very beautiful, I find that works very well”.
In another recording Nix said: “We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land for instance, we’ll have the whole thing recorded, we’ll blank out the face of our guy and we post it on the Internet.”
Nix also offered this helpful clarification: “These are things that don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed.”
The Channel 4 News investigation was broadcast on Monday in the U.K. This stunning report came just two days after it was reported that Cambridge had worked with Steve Bannon and the Trump campaign to use Facebook profile data to swing the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.
Both Cambridge and Facebook are now under intense scrutiny from politicians in both the United States and the United Kingdom for misuse of private data of Facebook users.
Cambridge has promoted itself as a high-tech consultant to political campaigns but the undercover investigation by Channel 4 News shows that the company has offered a much broader and more sinister list of services.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
