A senior campaign aide to Donald Trump, a Republican candidate at the time, considered hiring an Israeli firm of former intelligence agents to influence voters on social media and gather information about Trump's main opponent Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times reported.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th October, 2018) A senior campaign aide to Donald Trump, a Republican candidate at the time, considered hiring an Israeli firm of former intelligence agents to influence voters on social media and gather information about Trump's main opponent Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times reported.
According to copies of the company's proposals obtained by the newspaper, Trump campaign official Rick Gates turned to Israeli Psy-Group, whose plans would be aimed at swaying the Republican delegates in Trump's favor, collecting information regarding then-Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton and attracting minority groups and undecided voters.
The news outlet said late on Monday that the company was planning to analyze data about over 5,000 delegates who were supposed to vote at the Republican convention and then create fake online profiles to send them messages and even make phone calls, trying to persuade them to vote for Trump instead of his main party rival Ted Kruz.
Psy-Group was also going to use "complementary intelligence activities" to gather information about Clinton and send messages to undecided voters that would make Trump look good in their eyes, the media outlet added.
The outlet said citing sources familiar with the matter that Gates was eventually uninterested in the company's services, adding that the Psy-Group employees were interviewed as part of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election.
However, the newspaper added that the company was still paid $2 million by UAE emissary George Nader after the 2016 election, which attracted Mueller's attention.
The United States has repeatedly accused Moscow of meddling in the 2016 election and trying to sway voters in Trump's favor. Russia has refuted all allegations of interfering with the election, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that they are absolutely unfounded. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, argued that no evidence had been provided to substantiate the allegations. Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Washington that Russia had not meddled in the election.
