Cambridge Analytica whistleblower to cooperate with investigation. Is it the hub linking the Trump campaign and Russia?

The pink-haired computer expert, who has been appearing all over TV in the past few weeks, spilling the beans about Cambridge Analytica, has told the Associated Press that he will cooperate with a Justice Department investigation.

What he can attest to is the plan and circumstances under which the data mining and manipulating company swiped the individual data from 50 million Facebook users -- and then how they used this data in selective ads to influence the 2016 election.

Christopher Wylie is the whistleblower and a former employee of Cambridge Analytica.   Robert Mueller, as well as the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, are very interested in anything that might help them determine whether there was any link, through them, between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The billionaire father-daughter Mercers have been major stockholders in Cambridge Analytica, and Steve Bannon was at one time a member of the board.   The Mercers were the chief financiers of Bannon and Breitbart News -- until they cut Bannon loose, when he turned on Trump after his firing from the White House position.

What a tangled mess.   There's got to be a hub in there somewhere -- and once that hub is teased out, then we should find the thread that links the Trump campaign and Russia.   So is there a connection between Cambridge Analytica and all those Russian bots that "bought" those Facebook ads?    Let's hope Christopher Wylie can back up what he's been hinting at on TV.

A note of caution;   The TV appearances I have seen present Wylie as someone who was well-positioned to have behind-the-scenes knowledge of what went on.  However, HuffPost's article on it referred to him as having "helped found" the Cambridge Analytica company and "worked for them until 2014."

That suggests he was not on the inside during the run-up to the 2016 election.  I'd like to get some clarification on this point before we get too excited about this.  None of what I've found thus far mentions when or why he left Cambridge Analytica, where he had been Director of Research.

On the other hand, Wylie has already testified before the British Parliament, which felt he had useful information to share about influence on the Brexit vote.  And he is now scheduled to meet with the US House Intelligence Committee.   He apparently has some documentary evidence, not just his word, about all of this.

So, stay tuned.

Ralph