According to a blockbuster report by The Daily Beast, Alexander Nix, the head of Cambridge Analytica data firm employed by Donald Trump’s election campaign, allegedly asked Julian Assange to find Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 missing emails. In an email written to a third party last year, Nix revealed he had reached out to the WikiLeaks founder, though not just to inquire about his organization’s possibly recovering the deleted emails. More specifically, sources familiar with the congressional investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion, Nix offered to help Assange expose the emails should he recover them.
The Daily Beast points out that, should the contents of Nix’s email be proven true, such evidence would be “closest known connection between Trump’s campaign and Assange.” (Despite Roger Stone’s best efforts.) Even so, readers should practice caution, as the apparent collusion — or attempt at collusion — between Nix and Assange isn’t a smoking gun:
Nobody has published the 33,000 emails that were deleted from the personal email server Hillary Clinton used while she was Secretary of State.
“It’s not at all clear that anybody hacked Clinton’s emails or has them,” said one of the sources familiar with the investigation.
The 33,000 emails in question were launched into the spotlight during the Democratic National Convention when, while giving a press conference of his own in Florida, Trump openly encouraged Russian hackers to find and release Clinton’s discarded data. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said at the time. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by the press.” Assange, meanwhile, apparently told Nix he preferred to do the work of trying to recover Clinton’s missing emails alone, and without any help from Cambridge Analytica.
Nix’s firm refused to provide comment to The Daily Beast. After publication, however, Assange issued a statement that seemingly confirmed the report. “We can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks,” it read. However, a Republican digital strategist who previously worked with Nix told the outlet he “is not credible at all… a consummate salesman, and there are numerous instances already out in the public record where he made claims that were not just factually wrong.” Even so, when asked if Nix would have reached out to Assange, the source said, “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
(Via The Daily Beast)