Thread by @carolecadwalla

Last night, @AP reported 180-page legal complaint filed by non-partisan Campaign Legal Center.

It claims Cambridge Analytica facilitated illegal co-ordination between Trump & PACs. 757 pages of internal CA docs were also released

This is material @ICOnews has. SO many qs

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1317271632998793218

Everything about this story is hard to follow. But here's what you need to understand: AIQ is company at the heart of Brexit. Found by Cummings. Used by 4 different campaigns. Who by law not allowed to co-ordinate. (Though we know at least 2 of them did - Vote Leave & BeLeave)

Last week, @ICOnews told DCMS committee 'AIQ has consistently denied have a closer relationship beyond that between a software developer & their client'. And that all work was 'conducted with SCL & not CA'.

These docs - which @ICOnews has - flatly contradict this

To understand context of this, you need to read this by campaign finance expert @brendan_fischer of Campaign Legal Center. It has done painstakingly detailed work to untangle illegal co-ordination at heart of Mercer's distributed empire & Trump campaign

campaignlegal.org/update/newly-p…

But before we get to this, we need to disentangle what happened last week. A blogpost by an @FT journalist who'd never previously reported on Cambridge Analytica set off a cascade of 'conspiracy theory!' articles by the usual suspects...

I suspect the journalist doesn't even know about work Cambridge Analytica did for @FT. Certainly she doesn't note it. But here, you can see this CA employee boasting about the 'good work' it did for @FT. And in same email, admitting freely CA used psychographics for Trump

In these docs are contracts where CA explicitly says it retains clients' data. And it seems fair @khalafroula to understand exactly what this was. In these docs are contracts where CA explicitly states it retains clients' data. And then used it in its political work. Was @FT's?

At very least, it's surely simply good journalistic practice that this conflict should have been noted in an article that has been used to whack entire Cambridge Analytica investigation, @khalafroula ?

And who was the first person to leap on @FT article & feast upon it? Why @afneil of course. Could @afneil have any undeclared interests in this story revealed by these new docs??

Uh oh. Look who's there on the launch night of LeaveEU, @afneil. With Banks, Farage & Cambridge Analytica. Why...it's only the Barclay Brothers!

Or as we know them - @afneil's boss. Did you know this @afneil? Have you ever asked them about their involvement?? You going to now??

This is just one of dozens of stories by @spectator

And we know now, its owners the Barclay Bros - who also employ Dominic Cummings' wife - were at private briefing dinner arranged by Cambridge Analytica & LeaveEU.

Will @afneil bring that famous 'forensic' eye to bear on this?

Whatever else it is, it's embarrassing @afneil.

You've attacked me personally & @ObserverUK's journalism. Your magazine @spectator has run story after claiming it's a 'conspiracy theory'

Well, if it is. It's one with your bosses - the Barclay Bros - at centre of it since day 1

There's so much more in here. But I need fresh air & sunlight. (As this entire story does). But these docs - released far far too late - clarify a lot.

Not least the relation between LeaveEU-UKIP-CA-Bannon. And the data sharing between them.

Final note. @roulakhalaf, FT did such superb reporting on Wirecard. Key thing @FD grasped was that it was not a normal company. UK press has failed to understand: Cambridge Analytica was not a normal company. It's so fundamental to understanding entire story. Ask @profcarroll

Cambridge was not a normal company.

Ask @jason_kint. Ask @ProfessorShaw. Ask @JaneMayerNYer. Ask @suehalpernVT. Ask @chrisinsilico. Ask @EmmaLBriant. Ask @charleskriel. Ask @DamianCollins. Ask @IanCLucas. Ask. People. Who. Have. Done. The. Work