John R. Bolton, the hard-line former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who President Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser, shares a couple of controversial connections with his new boss.
In2014, Bolton’s super PAC became one of the first groups to hire Cambridge Analytica to work on Republican elections, and since then has paid the embattled data company more than $1.1 million for 「research」 and 「survey research,」 according to campaign filings.
The controversial firm—at the center ofa growing scandalover a mountain of harvestedFacebook dataand boasts ofplaying dirty tricksinelections around the world—counts right-wing mega donor Robert Mercer as its main backer and received $5.6 million from the Trump campaign in 2016. Mercer, who was also Trump’s largest patron, has donated $5 million to Bolton’s super PAC.
John Bolton [Photo: Flickr userGage Skidmore]
AsCarrie LevineatThe Center for Public Integritynoted, citing campaign finance filings,
So far during the 2018 election season, Bolton hasannouncedhis super PAC will spend $1 million boosting Republican Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson in Wisconsin. Nicholson is challenging incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat.
Bolton’s super PAC spent roughly $2.5 million during the 2016 election cycle to support the bids of Republican U.S. Senate candidates, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The press release announcing support for Nicholson said that 「Ambassador Bolton looks to increase those contributions for the 2018 midterm elections.」
Bolton’s Super PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new national security adviser also isn’t the only Trump official with ties to the Mercers. Aside from Jared Kushner, who helped oversee some of Cambridge Analytica’s work on the 2016 digital campaign, the list of Mercer ties includes, the Center notes, counselor to the presidentKellyanne Conway, White House Director of Legislative AffairsMarc Short, andNick Ayers, the vice president’s chief of staff.
One of Cambridge’s first clients was John Bolton Super PAC, which paid $25,000 to the data firm in 2014 [Photo: SEC]
And, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon—an ex-beneficiary of Mercer’s largesse—was a vice president, board member, and investor at Cambridge Analytica until he became chief executive of the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016.
Cambridge was established with Mercer money in 2013 as a spin-off of SCL Elections, a U.K. firm, in order to work on behalf of conservative candidates in the U.S. At the Financial Times Future Of News conference today, Bannon claimed thathe 「didn’t know」about the Facebook data mining operation.
Amid the growing scandal, Cambridge’s CEO was suspended by its board of directors on Monday. The company has denied any wrongdoing and contrary to claims, insists that it had deleted the harvested Facebook data that it paid a researcher to collect in 2014.
Bolton will replace Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the Army officer President Trump picked as his national security adviser last year. Officials toldtheTimesthat McMaster’s departure—which comes ahead of a meeting between Trump and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un—was a mutual decision and amicable. They also said it was not related toa leak on Tuesday of materialsrelated to Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which warned Trump 「DO NOT CONGRATULATE」 Putin on his recent electoral victory. Theeffortproved futile.
Read more on the evolving fallout from theFacebook–Cambridge Analyticascandal.AP