Behavioral and online targeting of political opponents by Israeli private spy firms - News Review | M.N.: This is the real and huge scandal, no less in its significance than the Trump Investigations. It should be investigated just as vigorously. Hey guys, do you think that you are going to rule the World? Or are you trying just to make a little buck this way? It will not work. Take some Bible classes. Long prison terms, confiscations, and other remedial measures will help you with your newly found Golden Calf Hebrew Hubris, my dear little Israeli geniuses.
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Behavioral and online targeting of political opponents by Israeli private spy firms
__________________________________________________
M.N.: This is the real and huge scandal, no less in its significance than the Trump Investigations. It should be investigated just as vigorously.
Hey guys, do you think that you are going to rule the World? Or are you trying just to make a little buck this way? It will not work. Take some Bible classes.
Long prison terms, confiscations, and other remedial measures will help you with your newly found Golden Calf Hebrew Hubris, my dear little Israeli geniuses.
______________________________________________________
Former Mossad agents formed company that targeted Clinton campaign, Israel boycott activists
Special counsel Robert Mueller arriving at the U.S. Capitol for a closed meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, June 21, 2017. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(JTA) — An Israeli company made up of former Mossad agents that specialized in covertly spreading messages to influence what people believed and how they behaved targeted the boycott Israel movement on American college campuses.
Psy-Group also took credit for turning Bernie Sanders supporters against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton using Facebook during the 2016 election, the New Yorker reported in “Mossad for Hire,” an article by Adam Entous and Ronan Farrow published this week.
The article focuses on a small campaign by the company to influence a recall election for the hospital board of a small California town. But Psy-Group’s larger ambition was to break into the U.S. election market, according to the report.
During the 2016 presidential race, the company pitched members of Donald Trump’s campaign team on its ability to influence the results. The pitches attracted the attention of the FBI, according to the report, leading special counsel Robert Mueller to examine the firm’s activities as part of his investigation into Russian election interference and other matters.
The article also reported on an operation code-named Project Butterfly, funded to the tune of $2.5 million by what the New Yorker called “wealthy Jewish-American donors.” The project, which targeted up to 10 college campuses, launched in February 2016.
The goal of Butterfly, the article reported, citing a 2017 company document, was to “destabilize and disrupt anti-Israel movements from within.” Psy-Group operatives searched the internet, including social media, for derogatory information about activists supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel and posted it online using fake identities and websites that could not be traced back to the company.
Psy-Group closed in February 2018, just as Mueller’s team began questioning employees, according to the report.
Read Israeli spy firm Black Cube's secret pitch to clients
Quartz-5 hours ago
The Israeli security firm Black Cube has become infamous for its alleged “dirty ops” campaigns, which involve getting “dirt” on their clients' ...
Israeli spy firm reportedly targeted researchers probing hacks of ...
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Black Cube, which aided Harvey Weinstein, targeted six people connected to lawsuits against the Israeli hacking firm NSO Group, say new ...
Canadian Attorney Claims to Be Targeted by Recently Unmasked ...
Haaretz-Feb 28, 2019
Black Cube has previously acknowledged doing work on the Catalyst case, which centers on allegations of stock market manipulation.
Court filing links spy exposed by AP to Israel's Black Cube
Washington Post-Feb 27, 2019
Black Cube has previously acknowledged doing work on the Catalyst case, which centers on allegations of stock market manipulation.
Read the whole story
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Black Cube
Intelligence agency
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Description
Black Cube is a private intelligence agency based in London, Paris and Tel Aviv, and is the trading name of BC Strategy Ltd. The company was founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus. Wikipedia
Headquarters: Tel Aviv & London
Number of employees: 100
Founded: 2010
Adam Schiff: Erik Prince did not disclose 2016 Trump Tower meeting ...
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... manipulation specialist Joel Zamel. When pressed by Hasan about why it did not appear in the interview transcript, Prince suggested that the ...
Schiff: Erik Prince interview doesn't match testimony to House intel ...
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Washington Times-Mar 10, 2019
Swiss Mystery Company Is at the Heart of a Mueller Puzzle
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... now defunct, they operated under the understanding that Joel Zamel, an Australian with links to Israeli intelligence, ultimately owned the firm.
Trump Ally Eric Prince says transcript of testimony to Congress was ...
The indy100-Mar 9, 2019
... the Emiratis - he also happens to be a convicted paedophile - and also Joel Zamel an Israeli expert on social media manipulation. How come ...
Erik Prince acknowledges 2016 Trump Tower meeting for first time
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Private Mossad for Hire
The New Yorker-Feb 11, 2019
Psy-Group was part of a new wave of private intelligence firms that recruited from the ranks of Israel'ssecret services—self-described “private ...
A company run by former Israeli spies reportedly tried to influence a ...
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Psy-Group, a defunct private intelligence agency staffed with former Israeli spies, attempted to influence at least one local US election and other ...
Psy Group Speed Read: 6 WTF Bits From The New Yorker Exposé on ...
Daily Beast-Feb 11, 2019
In 2017, the notorious Israeli spy-for-hire outfit known as Psy Group, known for its alleged role in social-media manipulation ahead of Donald ...
Ex-Mossad agents formed company that targeted Clinton campaign ...
The Times of Israel-Feb 12, 2019
New Yorker report details Israeli firm Psy-group's attempt to ... behaved targeted the boycott Israelmovement on American college campuses.
Former Mossad agents formed company that targeted Clinton campaign
International-The Jerusalem Post-Feb 12, 2019
International-The Jerusalem Post-Feb 12, 2019
Read the whole story
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Mexican privacy watchdog criticizes government over spyware
ABC News-Feb 20, 2019
In 2017, the internet watchdog Citizen Lab released its investigation that ... human rights group, and Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity.
Spies tried to sabotage critics of Israeli spyware tech
New York Post-Feb 11, 2019
... technology used by some governments to spy on their citizens. ... work at Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group that is based out of the ...
AP Exclusive: Undercover spy exposed in NYC was 1 of many
Associated Press (press release) (blog)-Feb 11, 2019
Associated Press (press release) (blog)-Feb 11, 2019
Exposed Israeli spy linked to apparent effort by NSO Group to derail ...
The Times of Israel-Feb 11, 2019
The Times of Israel-Feb 11, 2019
The Undercover Spy Op Targeting Journalist, Lawyers Battling Israeli ...
International-Haaretz-Feb 11, 2019
International-Haaretz-Feb 11, 2019
Israeli spy firm reportedly targeted researchers probing hacks of ...
Fast Company-Feb 13, 2019
NSO Group, based in Herzliya, Israel, makes a secretive ... Scott-Railton works at internet watchdog Citizen Lab, a group based at the ...
Internet watchdog Citizen Lab targeted in comically inept undercover ...
Ars Technica-Jan 26, 2019
Researchers at Internet watchdog group Citizen Lab orchestrated the sting after they grew suspicious of a man calling himself Michael Lambert ...
This powerful off-the-shelf phone-hacking tool is spreading
Fast Company-Sep 19, 2018
Researchers at internet watchdog Citizen Lab have found that a ... Pegasus, designed by Israeli security firm NSO Group, has been pitched as ...
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· · ·
US fund sells Israeli hacking firm NSO Group amid spy mystery
Fast Company-Feb 14, 2019
NSO's cofounders bought the controversial spyware maker back from Francisco Partners, which spent years trying to unload the company.
Israeli spyware company NSO is re-acquired by its founders
Associated Press (press release) (blog)-Feb 14, 2019
Associated Press (press release) (blog)-Feb 14, 2019
Israeli Spyware Firm NSO Group Confronts Controversial Past As It ...
Forbes-Feb 25, 2019
But that can be difficult if, like Israeli software company NSO Group, they're facing multiple lawsuits alleging that their products have been used ...
Spies Reportedly Tried to Discredit Critics of Controversial Israeli ...
Fortune-Feb 11, 2019
Undercover operatives allegedly approached and tried to discredit critics of controversial Israeli spyware company NSO Group, the Associated ...
The Undercover Spy Op Targeting Journalist, Lawyers Battling Israeli ...
International-Haaretz-Feb 11, 2019
International-Haaretz-Feb 11, 2019
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NSO Group
Software company
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Description
NSO Group Technologies is an Israeli technology firm focused on cyber intelligence. It was founded in 2010 by Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio. It is reported to employ around 500 people and is based in Herzliya near Tel Aviv. Annual revenues were said to be around $40 million in 2013 and $150 million in 2015. Wikipedia
Founded: 2010
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Private Mossad for Hire
The New Yorker-Feb 11, 2019
Psy-Group was part of a new wave of private intelligence firms that recruited ..... of him engaging in behavior unacceptable to many pious Muslims, such as ... Psy-Group would then release the information online using avatars and ... While active Israeli intelligence operatives aren't supposed to spy on the ...
Psy Group Speed Read: 6 WTF Bits From The New Yorker Exposé on ...
Daily Beast-Feb 11, 2019
In 2017, the notorious Israeli spy-for-hire outfit known as Psy Group, known for its alleged role in social-media manipulation ahead of Donald Trump's election and its ... The New Yorker published “Private Mossad for Hire” by reporters Adam ... In 2017, Psy operatives scouted the internet for supporters of the ...
The gaslighting of Ilhan Omar
Mondoweiss-Feb 20, 2019
Yet they reproduce the same pattern: apologetics for Israel and broad .... Omar: unlike the rest of us, who were gaslit privately in school disciplinary hearings, .... so many of the manipulation and dishonesty of Israeli propagandists. ... duplicitous behavior by his company to conceal its Russian funding, when ...
Revealed: Israel's Cyber-spy Industry Helps World Dictators Hunt ...
Haaretz-Oct 18, 2018
Within a few years, the Israeli espionage industry has become the spearhead of ... Private Israeli companies, the investigation discovered, have sold ... Some of them control the databases of internetproviders and cellular .... Manipulate. .... it's possible to exploit it in order to change the system's behavior.
Saipem and former managers face trial in profit warning case
Yahoo News-Mar 1, 2019
Under Italian law, companies are responsible for the actions of their managers ... waitress posted about their distressing behavior on Facebook. ... her criticism of pro-Israel groups and politicians, which some have deemed anti-semitic. .... last month, Ghosn is banned from accessing the internet and email, ...
The Rise of the Cyber-Mercenaries
Foreign Policy-Aug 31, 2018
Israel is a world leader in private cybertechnology, with at least 300 firms covering ... But while most of these firms aim to protect companies from ... Up to 175 people have been targeted by the NSO Group's spyware since 2016, ... Aperio, in fact, has a product that detects data manipulation—a “truth machine ...
Read the whole story
· · ·
Private Mossad for Hire
The New Yorker-Feb 11, 2019
Gutiérrez, a political-science major, was a leader of the Young Democrats ... Psy-Group was part of a new wave of private intelligence firms that recruited ... Web sites to mount a “negative campaign” targeting “the opposition candidate. ..... While active Israeli intelligence operatives aren't supposed to spy on ...
Psy Group Speed Read: 6 WTF Bits From The New Yorker Exposé on ...
Daily Beast-Feb 11, 2019
In 2017, the notorious Israeli spy-for-hire outfit known as Psy Group, known for its alleged role in social-media manipulation ahead of Donald Trump's election and its ... The New Yorker published “Private Mossad for Hire” by reporters Adam ... In 2017, Psy operatives scouted the internet for supporters of the ...
The gaslighting of Ilhan Omar
Mondoweiss-Feb 20, 2019
Yet they reproduce the same pattern: apologetics for Israel and .... the rest of us, who were gaslit privately in school disciplinary hearings, ... Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose support or oppositioncould make .... media companies to censor from the internet political content critical of the US government.
How One of America's Premier Data Monarchs is Funding a Global ...
Mintpress News-Feb 18, 2019
Omidyar's political empire consists of a web of organizations ... Hopelab: An initiative that focuses on encouraging a “behavioral ... It continues to fund the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League after the .... intelligence agency comprised of former FBI agents in 1999 to spy on eBay users and track down fraud.
Saipem and former managers face trial in profit warning case
Yahoo News-Mar 1, 2019
Search web ... Under Italian law, companies are responsible for the actions of their managers and ... waitress posted about their distressing behavior on Facebook. ... her criticism of pro-Israel groups and politicians, which some have ... than 50 other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido ...
Revealed: Israel's Cyber-spy Industry Helps World Dictators Hunt ...
Haaretz-Oct 18, 2018
Within a few years, the Israeli espionage industry has become the spearhead of ... Private Israeli companies, the investigation discovered, have sold ... someone else shared a hashtag identified with the opposition – and in an ... Some of them control the databases of internet providers and .... Manipulate.
China and Venezuela: Business Partners Against Human Rights
<a href="http://Bitterwinter.org" rel="nofollow">Bitterwinter.org</a> (press release)-Feb 19, 2019
And what's more, Smartmatic, the company that manages the Venezuelan electronic vote, has denounced Maduro's manipulation of more than one million ... Republic, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Georgia, Iceland, and Israel. .... storing important data about their political, social and economic behavior, ...
[BC-MCT-NEWS-BJT]
Herald-Mail Media-Feb 28, 2019
But despite the president returning empty-handed, Trump's political allies ... intends to continue serving as Israel's prime minister "for many years to come," after the .... Barack Obama "home to Kenya or wherever it is" resurfaced online. ... the Environmental Protection Agency, handing the reins of the agency ...
Netanyahu says Israel's ready for any election cyber-meddling ...
The Times of Israel-Jan 14, 2019
In September, an Israeli cybersecurity firm announced that it had uncovered ... rise followed by a drop in the activity of online manipulation tools, known as sock ... the extent to which Israelis' personal data is being widely abused. .... spyware in offices of the opposition, digitally listened in on politicalfigures, ...
The Rise of the Cyber-Mercenaries
Foreign Policy-Aug 31, 2018
Israel is a world leader in private cybertechnology, with at least 300 firms covering ... But while most of these firms aim to protect companies from ... Up to 175 people have been targeted by the NSO Group's spyware since 2016, ... Aperio, in fact, has a product that detects data manipulation—a “truth machine ...
Chapter Seventeen: Globalization – Communism at Its Core
The Epoch Times-Feb 9, 2019
Opposition to Globalization Furthers Communist Ideology e. ... Globalization Promotes Communist Political Ideas ... a leftward turn, the Soviet Union gained a firm foothold, and the CCP seized the opportunity to develop. ... communism will easily achieve its goal of eliminating private property, nations, races, ...
The Plot to Subvert an Election
New York Times-Sep 20, 2018
For two years, Americans have tried to absorb the details of the 2016 attack — hacked emails, social media fraud, suspected spies — and ...
Donald Trump's New World Order
The New Yorker-Jun 11, 2018
How the President, Israel, and the Gulf states plan to fight Iran—and leave the ... gave him the politicalcapacity to open the door to diplomatic relations with China. .... Israeli spy agencies had picked up on discussions about possible .... Obama had not been at all naïve about Iran's behavior, but he felt that ...
Our Global Repressive Political Future
LobeLog-Jan 31, 2019
But in recent years the internet offers a staggering wealth of surveillable ... Our politics are additionally manipulated by domestic and foreign forces at every turn. ... networks and political action, especially from states like Israel and Saudi Arabia ... And we have a plethora of private firms abroad as well like ...
Israeli hackers offered Cambridge Analytica politicians' emails — report
The Times of Israel-Mar 21, 2018
Company used by Trump campaign to mine Facebook user data ... from Israeli hackers who had accessed the private emails of two politicians who are now heads of state. ... opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari, The Guardian reported. ... traps and spying with the help of ex-spies from Britain and Israel.
The Film the Israel Lobby Does Not Want You to See
Common Dreams-Dec 4, 2018
Israel's behavior is unethical and perhaps illegal. But don't expect anyone in the establishment or either of the two ruling political parties to do anything about it. ... Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] Palestinian schools to hate Jews. ... Publicly, they said, 'We shall spy on BDS individuals and networks, ...
Iran threatens Israel with 'inferno,' vows to improve missile accuracy
The Times of Israel-Jan 29, 2019
“The enemies say Iran's missile power should be eliminated, but we have ... strategy was to eventually wipe Israel off the “global political map.”.
Google suspends targeted ads until after election day – report
The Times of Israel-Feb 7, 2019
Advertising giant tells Israeli ad companies no tailored messaging will be offered in Israel as part of company's effort to avoid being used again to manipulate elections .... to talk to their children about the consequences of such behavior. .... political debates using the targeted advertising tools of major online ...
Israeli co-authors NYU resolution to divest from companies with Israel ...
The Times of Israel-Dec 8, 2018
Rose Asaf says people listen when Israeli Jews speak up about the issue, ... as 'endowment should not be used for making political statements'.
Trump Goes Nuclear After Report His Son Entertained Illegal ...
Vanity Fair-May 20, 2018
Donald Trump flew into a frenzy online Sunday morning after The ... In a separate, previously unreported meeting, Trump Jr. also met with an Israeli social-media ... to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a ... firm Cambridge Analytica siphoned off personal user behaviorfrom ...
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Oct 8, 2018 - Another proposal describes opposition research and ... [An Israeli company drew up digital manipulation proposals for a Trump campaign aide. ... extensively as a campaign consultant for Israeli politicians and has developed a network .... a Republican donor and the founder of the privatesecurity company ...
Missing: Behavioral
Feb 18, 2019 - Gutiérrez, a political-science major, was a leader of the Young Democrats ... Psy-
Feb 11, 2019 - The 'private Mossad' who 'won' 2016 for Trump couldn't win a small-town election
Oct 20, 2018 - Within a few years, the Israeli espionage industry has become the spearhead of ... Private Israeli companies, the investigation discovered, have sold ... someone else shared a hashtag identified with the opposition – and in an ... Some of them control the databases of internet providers and .... Manipulate.
May 25, 2018 - Israeli Intelligence Firm's Election-Meddling Analysis Comes Under Mueller's Scrutiny ... on the role of social-media manipulation during the 2016 campaign. ... a presentation prepared by an Israel-based private intelligence firm that ... it as an internal analysis drawn up by the firm to drum up U.S. political ...
Missing: Behavioral opponents spy
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May 5, 2018 - Israeli agency told to find incriminating material on Obama diplomats ... Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence ... and if they had benefited personally or politically from the peace deal. .... Iranian oil exports down in order to force behaviour change on Tehran regime.
Missing: online manipulations opponents
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Aug 31, 2018 - What happens when private firms have cyberweapons as powerful ... at the University of Toronto specializing in human rights and internet ... Had he clicked on the links, the program would have turned his phone into a “digital spy in his ... had traced the program to a private firm: the mysterious Israeli NSO ...
Mar 21, 2018 - Company used by Trump campaign to mine Facebook user data ... Cambridge Analytica executives filmed on hidden camera boasting of using British, Israeli spies. ... accessed the private emails of two politicians who are now heads of state. ... opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari, The Guardian reported.
Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA) was a British political consulting firm which combined data .... CA derived much of its personality data on online surveys which it conducts on ... For example, Nix offered to discredit political opponents in Sri Lanka with .... sparking accusations that the company was manipulating both mainstream ...
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Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it ... In political science, it is defined as the process of seeking electoral victory or ... On the Internet, astroturfers use software to mask their identity. .... in 2010 that detects astroturfing on Twitter by recognizing behavioral patterns.
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· · · ·
WASHINGTON — A top Trump campaign official requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals.
The Trump campaign’s interest in the work began as Russians were escalating their effort to aid Donald J. Trump. Though the Israeli company’s pitches were narrower than Moscow’s interference campaign and appear unconnected, the documents show that a senior Trump aide saw the promise of a disruption effort to swing voters in Mr. Trump’s favor.
The campaign official, Rick Gates, sought one proposal to use bogus personas to target and sway 5,000 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention by attacking Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Mr. Trump’s main opponent at the time. Another proposal describes opposition research and “complementary intelligence activities” about Mrs. Clinton and people close to her, according to copies of the proposals obtained by The New York Times and interviews with four people involved in creating the documents.
A third proposal by the company, Psy-Group, which is staffed by former Israeli intelligence operatives, sketched out a monthslong plan to help Mr. Trump by using social media to help expose or amplify division among rival campaigns and factions. The proposals, part of what Psy-Group called “Project Rome,” used code names to identify the players — Mr. Trump was “Lion” and Mrs. Clinton was “Forest.” Mr. Cruz, who Trump campaign officials feared might lead a revolt over the Republican presidential nomination, was “Bear.”
[An Israeli company drew up digital manipulation proposals for a Trump campaign aide. Read them here.]
There is no evidence that the Trump campaign acted on the proposals, and Mr. Gates ultimately was uninterested in Psy-Group’s work, a person with knowledge of the discussions said, in part because other campaign aides were developing a social media strategy. Psy-Group’s owner, Joel Zamel, did meet in August 2016 with Donald Trump Jr., Mr. Trump’s eldest son.
Investigators working for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s campaign to disrupt the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates conspired, have obtained copies of the proposals and questioned Psy-Group employees, according to people familiar with those interviews.
The scope of the social media campaigns, essentially a broad effort to sow disinformation among Republican delegates and general election voters, was more extensive than the work typically done by campaign operatives to spread the candidate’s message on digital platforms. The proposal to gather information about Mrs. Clinton and her aides has elements of traditional opposition research, but it also contains cryptic language that suggests using clandestine means to build “intelligence dossiers.”
Mr. Gates first heard about Psy-Group’s work during a March 2016 meeting at the Mandarin Oriental hotel along the Washington waterfront with George Birnbaum, a Republican consultant with close ties to current and former Israeli government officials. Mr. Gates had joined the Trump campaign days earlier with Paul Manafort, his longtime business partner, to try to prevent a revolt of Republican delegates from Mr. Trump toward Mr. Cruz, who was the favored candidate among the party’s establishment.
According to Mr. Birnbaum, Mr. Gates expressed interest during that meeting in using social media influence and manipulation as a campaign tool, most immediately to try to sway Republican delegates toward Mr. Trump.
“He was interested in finding the technology to achieve what they were looking for,” Mr. Birnbaum said in an interview. Through a lawyer, Mr. Gates declined to comment. A person familiar with Mr. Gates’s account of the meeting said that Mr. Birnbaum first raised the topic of hiring an outside firm to conduct the social media campaign.
The special counsel’s office indicted Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates last year on multiple charges of financial fraud and tax evasion. Mr. Gates pleaded guilty to several of the charges this year, and he is cooperating with Mr. Mueller’s investigation.
It is unclear whether the Project Rome proposals describe work that would violate laws regulating foreign participation in American elections. Psy-Group hired Covington & Burling, a Washington-based law firm, to conduct a legal review. Stuart Eizenstat, a former American diplomat and a partner at the firm who participated in the legal review, declined to comment on its conclusions.
Mr. Birnbaum was a protégé of Arthur J. Finkelstein, the legendary Republican political operative, and has spent years as a consultant working on behalf of candidates in foreign elections. In 1996, he helped Mr. Finkelstein engineer Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory over Shimon Peres to become the prime minister of Israel.
Since then, Mr. Birnbaum has worked extensively as a campaign consultant for Israeli politicians and has developed a network of contacts with current and former Israeli security officials. He served as a foreign policy adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon who is now the secretary of housing and urban development.
Mr. Birnbaum appeared to initiate the contact with Mr. Gates, asking for his email address from Eckart Sager, a political consultant who had worked with both men, to pitch Mr. Gates on a technology that could be used by Mr. Gates’s and Mr. Manafort’s clients in Eastern Europe. Mr. Sager’s name emerged this year in a filing by Mr. Mueller’s team, which claimed that Mr. Manafort had tried to influence Mr. Sager’s court testimony in the special counsel’s case against Mr. Manafort.
After the hotel meeting with Mr. Gates in March 2016, Mr. Birnbaum worked directly with Psy-Group employees to refine the proposals for the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the work.
The proposals all promise the utmost secrecy, including the use of code names and password-protected documents. Filled with jargon and buzzwords, they sketch out a vigorous campaign where Psy-Group employees would conduct the tedious work of creating messages that could influence delegates based on their personalities.
The first document, dated April 2016, said that the company “was asked to provide a proposal” for “campaign intelligence and influence services.” Psy-Group promised that “veteran intelligence officers” would use various methods to assess the leanings of the roughly 5,000 delegates to the Republican nominating convention.
After scouring social media accounts and all other available information to compile a dossier on the psychology of any persuadable delegate, more than 40 Psy-Group employees would use “authentic looking” fake online identities to bombard up to 2,500 targets with specially tailored messages meant to win them over to Mr. Trump.
The messages would describe Mr. Cruz’s “ulterior motives or hidden plans,” or they would appear to come from former Cruz supporters or from influential individuals with the same background or ideology as a target. The barrage of messages would continue for months and include “both online and offline” approaches, even telephone calls.
Psy-Group also said that it would obtain “unique intel” by different means, including “covert sources” and “tailored avatars.”
Each approach would “look authentic and not part of the paid campaign,” the proposal promised. The price tag for the work was more than $3 million. To carry out the plan, Psy-Group intended to double its size, hiring an additional 50 employees — some of them American citizens — and renting new office space, according to former employees of the company.
A second proposal focused on gathering information about Mrs. Clinton and 10 of her associates through publicly available data as well as unspecified “complementary intelligence activities.” Psy-Group promised to prepare a comprehensive dossier on each of the targets, including “any actionable intelligence.”
A third document emphasized “tailored third-party messaging” aimed at minority, suburban female and undecided voters in battleground states. It promised to create and maintain fake online personas that would deliver messages highlighting Mr. Trump’s merits and Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses or revealing “rifts and rivalries within the opposition.”
Though it appears that Trump campaign officials declined to accept any of the proposals, Mr. Zamel pitched the company’s services in at least general terms during a meeting on Aug. 3, 2016, at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. That meeting, revealed in May by The Times, was also attended by George Nader, an emissary from the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and by Erik Prince, a Republican donor and the founder of the private security company formerly known as Blackwater.
Former Psy-Group employees said that, in anticipation of the Trump Tower meeting, Mr. Zamel asked them to prepare an updated version of the third proposal. A lawyer for Mr. Zamel said that Mr. Zamel had not personally discussed specific proposals with Donald Trump Jr. or anyone else from the Trump campaign.
“Mr. Zamel never pitched, or otherwise discussed, any of Psy-Group’s proposals relating to the U.S. elections with anyone related to the Trump campaign, including not with Donald Trump Jr., except for outlining the capabilities of some of his companies in general terms,” said the lawyer, Marc Mukasey.
Mr. Nader and Mr. Zamel have given differing accounts over whether Mr. Zamel ultimately carried out the social media effort to help the Trump campaign and why Mr. Nader paid him $2 million after the election, according to people who have discussed the matter with the two men.
The reason for the payment has been of keen interest to Mr. Mueller, according to people familiar with the matter.
It is unclear how and when the special counsel’s office began its investigation into Psy-Group’s work, but F.B.I. agents have spent hours interviewing the firm’s employees. This year, federal investigators presented a court order to the Israel Police and the Israeli Ministry of Justice to confiscate computers in Psy-Group’s former offices in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv.
The company is now in liquidation.
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