Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Firm that pitched election work comes under inquiry
Lawyer of founder: Nothing offered to Trump campaign
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has asked about flows of money into the Cyprus bank account of a company that specialized in social-media manipulation and whose founder reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr. in August 2016, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
The inquiry is drawing attention to PSY Group, an Israeli firm that pitched its services to super PACs and other entities during the 2016 election. Those services included infiltrating target audiences with elaborately crafted socialmedia personas and spreading misleading information through websites meant to mimic news portals, according to interviews and PSY Group documents seen by Bloomberg News.
The person doesn’t believe any of those pitches succeeded, and it’s illegal for foreign entities to contribute anything of value or to play decision-making roles in U.S. political campaigns.
One of PSY Group’s founders, Joel Zamel, met in August 2016 at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. and an emissary to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss how PSY Group could help Trump win, the New York Times reported Saturday.
Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Zamel, said his client “offered nothing to the Trump campaign, received nothing from the Trump campaign, delivered nothing to the Trump campaign and was not solicited by, or asked to do anything for, the Trump campaign.” He also said reports that Zamel’s companies engage in social-media manipulation are misguided and that the firms “harvest publicly available information for lawful use.”
Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting at which he was pitched “on a social media platform or marketing strategy,” said his attorney, Alan Futerfas, in an emailed statement. “He was not interested and that was the end of it.”
Following Trump’s victory, PSY Group formed an alliance with Cambridge Analytica, the Trump campaign’s primary social-media consultant, to try to win U.S. government work, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News.
FBI agents working with Mueller’s team interviewed people associated with PSY Group’s U.S. operations in February, and Mueller subpoenaed bank records for payments made to the firm’s Cyprus bank accounts, according to a person who has seen one of the subpoenas. Though PSY Group is based in Israel, it’s technically headquartered in Cyprus, the small Mediterranean island famous for its banking secrecy.
Shortly after those interviews, on Feb. 25, PSY Group Chief Executive Officer Royi Burstien informed employees in Tel Aviv that the company was closing down. Burstien is a former commander of an Israeli psychological warfare unit, according to two people familiar with the company. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
PSY Group developed elaborate information operations for commercial clients and political candidates around the world, the people said.
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon, Trump’s former political strategist, said he was aware that Qatar was making efforts to meet with him last year as part of a broader campaign to influence the administration, but he said he rebuffed them.
“I knew the Qataris were looking to sit down with me,” Bannon said in an interview in Prague. “I never met with any of them.”
Efforts by Middle Eastern countries — including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — to influence U.S. policy have come under greater scrutiny following recent reports that Elliott Broidy, a top Trump fundraiser, was positioning himself as an intermediary for the campaign and administration.