Staff claim Cambridge Analytica ignored US ban on foreigners working on elections

[octoberlib]

Cambridge Analytica employed non-American citizens to work on US election campaigns in apparent violation of federal law, despite receiving a legal warning about the risks.

The company’s responsibilities under US law were laid out in a lawyer’s memo to the company’s vice-president, Steve Bannon, British CEO Alexander Nix and Rebekah Mercer, daughter of billionaire owner Robert Mercer, in July 2014. It made it clear that most senior and mid-level positions involving strategy, planning, fundraising or campaigning needed to be filled by US citizens.

“Any decision maker must be a US citizen or green card holder,” the memo, seen by the Observer, warned. It also provided a brief legal history of cases involving foreign involvement in election campaigns, drawn up by a lawyer at the firm founded by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.“To the extent you are aware of foreign nationals providing services, including polling and marketing, it would appear that unless it is being done through US citizens, or foreign nationals with green cards, the activity would violate the law.”

Employees working for Cambridge Analytica in the US at the time claimed that rather than tackling the problem, management appeared to ignore it. Two employees confirmed that they were still answering ultimately to Nix throughout the mid-term election campaigns that ended in November 2014. In total, more than a dozen foreigners, including Britons and Canadians, filled strategic roles in campaigns across the US.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-non-american-employees-political



JFC.

[Lindsay]

1. The right-wing response to laws

and regulations seems to come down to "Who's gonna make me?" and "Who's gonna stop me?"

And with Republicans in power, those are very good questions, I suppose.

[Qutzupalotl]

2. More leverage for Mueller.

[backtoblue]

3. Psychological warfare nt

[RandomAccess]

4. So glad these folks are finally getting some scrutiny