Today, Democratic Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform conducted an interview with Christopher Wylie, a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower who revealed that the firm—which the Trump Campaign used to target voters in the 2016 Presidential election—acquired and misused the personal information of millions of U.S. Facebook users.
Following the interview, Democratic Members issued the following statement:
“Mr. Wylie’s statements today demonstrate why it is so important that our Committees prioritize investigating foreign interference in our elections. We need interviews, documents, and hearings without delay. Instead, Reps. Goodlatte and Gowdy have spent their time on repeated investigations of Hillary Clinton’s emails and holding sham hearings centered on the theory that conservatives are unfairly censored on social media.
“Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to President Trump, once credited Cambridge Analytica with the President’s victory, but the interview with Mr. Wylie today raises serious questions and concerns about our security. We must do more to learn how foreign actors collect and weaponize our data against us, and what impact social media has on our democratic processes. Cambridge Analytica is not the first company to engage in these types of tactics, nor will they be last if we fail to conduct oversight and investigate this matter thoroughly. We demand that Chairman Goodlatte and Chairman Gowdy hold immediate hearings and call in additional witnesses without delay.”
Despite an invitation from House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Nadler, Judiciary Committee Republicans refused to participate in the interview, choosing instead to focus on a hearing this Thursday featuring social media personalities Diamond and Silk, who argue that social media companies are engaged in a plot to silence conservative voices on the Internet.
