Ex-Analytica staff working for Donald Trump's 2020 re-election

WASHINGTON: A company run by former officials at Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm brought down by a scandal over how it obtained Facebook users' private data, has quietly been working for President Trump's 2020 re-election effort, it has been learned.

At least four former Cambridge Analytica employees are affiliated with Data Propria, a new company specialising in voter and consumer targeting work similar to Cambridge Analytica's efforts before its collapse. The company's former head of product, Matt Oczkowski, leads the new firm, which also includes Cambridge Analytica's former chief data scientist.

Oczkowski denied a link to the Trump campaign, but acknowledged that his new firm has agreed to do 2018 campaign work for the Republican National Committee. Oczkowski led the Cambridge Analytica data team which worked on Trump's successful 2016 campaign.

The Associated Press learned of Data Propria's role in Trump's re-election effort as a result of conversations held with political contacts and prospective clients in recent weeks by Oczkowski. In one such conversation, which took place in a public place and was overheard by two reporters, Oczkowski said he and and Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, were "doing the president's work for 2020".

Both Oczkowski and Parscale said that no Trump re-election work by Data Propria was even planned, but confirmed that Parscale had helped Data Propria line up a successful bid on 2018 midterm polling-related work for the RNC, awarded earlier this week. Oczkowski called the contract modest.