Thread by @TanyasTwit

“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.”
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

“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.”

"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."

The Mercers “agreed to invest a reported $15 million in a new company...Cambridge Analytica, and it was part of the British-based SCL Group. Bannon was given a seat on its board and named VP. The politically active Mercers would become its biggest financial supporters.”

“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.”

“Federal election records show Cambridge Analytica has on at least two occasions listed a New Berlin (Wisconsin) P.O. box associated with Block.”

“The 2013 gathering aboard the Mercers' yacht was made possible by another Block encounter earlier that year, a chance meeting on an airplane. Block sat next to a cyberwarfare expert for the USAF who told him about election work from Cambridge Analytica's parent company, SCL.”

“After talking to the contractor on the plane, Block then met for more than six hours with Alexander Nix to talk about his firm's work at a hotel near the White House.”

“By the time he was done, I’m going like, ‘Holy (expletive),’ ” Block told the magazine. "I had been aware of what Obama had done. … But this seemed to be light-years ahead."

“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 VP 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.

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

🔥“This raises serious questions about the connections between Scott Walker’s 2014 re-election & 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.”