Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) asked Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) this week to hold a hearing and request documents from voter-profiling firm Cambridge Analytica following reports that the company exploited information from millions of Facebook users without their permission.
According to reports from The New York Times and Observer of London who spoke with a company whistleblower, Cambridge Analytica not only took and misused data from more than 50 million Facebook users, it reportedly used that information to influence users in favor of President Donald Trump’s campaign.
In a letter to Grassley, Feinstein called the reports “egregious” and “extremely troubling.”
“I believe the Judiciary Committee needs to look into exactly what happened,” Feinstein said. “That’s why I call on Chairman Grassley to join me in seeking testimony from Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix, whistleblower Christopher Wylie and Professor Aleksandr Kogan, who reportedly harvested the data from Facebook. I am also hopeful he will support document requests to Cambridge Analytica and Trump campaign officials.”
She said the company’s alleged actions could be violations of campaign finance laws and could be seen as part of a larger conspiracy to “defraud the United States.”
“These reports raise serious allegations, and the American people need to know how this happened, who knew about it, why steps were not taken sooner to bring it to an end, and what can be done to protect their privacy and the integrity of our elections going forward,” Feinstein said in a letter to Grassley Sunday. “I urge the Committee to get to the bottom of these questions by holding hearings on these matters, compelling the production of documents as well as the attendance of relevant witnesses.”
Read the letter to Grassley below:
Predicted response by Grassley: Nothing to see here… move along, the GOP has EVERYTHING under control.
This is our Rosetta Stone , neatly tying everything together
Yes Collusion! Yes Collusion! , You bet there was Collusion
There’s a lot of there there. Too much there there for Republicans to look there.
Squirrel! Look over there!
Good for her.
Especially in the House as currently organized you have to make these requests, even knowing nothing will come of it. Volunteer locally, folks, and give if you can. Even a pauper like me can rob his liquor budget a bit to buy the local committee stamps, envelopes, burner phones, bumper stickers, everything they need. Let’s get this done. Then after November we can make them pay.