Justice Department and FBI Are Investigating Cambridge Analytica

Cambridge Analytica has denied using Facebook data on the 2016 campaign. An internal audit commissioned by Cambridge described Mr. Nix’s statements in the video as an exaggeration.

Cambridge Analytica grew out of the SCL Group, a well-established British company that specialized in psychological research for defense and intelligence agencies but also worked on election campaigns, chiefly in developing countries.

In 2014, SCL executives persuaded Mr. Mercer to bankroll a new United States-based firm, Cambridge Analytica, that would break into the growing political data market with a promising new product: psychological profiles of millions of American voters. The new company was overseen by Mr. Mercer’s daughter, Rebekah, and then adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, both of whom went on to enjoy influential positions in Mr. Trump’s circle before the president’s break with Mr. Bannon this year.

Also in 2014, a contractor for the new firm used quiz apps and other programs to gather private profile information from as many as 87 million Facebook users, data former Cambridge employees said provided the critical basis for the new company’s voter profiles. The Times also reported in March that the company had sent personnel from Canada and Europe to work on various campaigns in the 2014 midterm elections and in 2016 campaigns, raising questions about Cambridge’s compliance with federal election law, which limits the involvement of noncitizens in election campaigns.

Over the past year, Cambridge’s efforts to break into commercial data and marketing work had suffered from the company’s association with Mr. Trump, according to former employees. And in the months before shutting down, Mr. Nix, the Mercer family and SCL’s owners had considered new ventures together.

One new firm, a British holding company called Emerdata, was formed in part to bring in new investors, according to a former employee. Emerdata’s directors, according to public records, came to include Johnson Ko Chun Shun, a Hong Kong financier and business partner of Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater.

Mr. Ko and Mr. Prince have links to the Chinese government: Citic, a state-owned Chinese financial conglomerate that for decades has employed the sons and daughters of the Communist Party’s elite families, is a major investor in Frontier Services Group, Mr. Ko and Mr. Prince’s Africa-focused logistics company.

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Novartis’s Top Lawyer is Out After Payments to Michael Cohen

Novartis has said that its former chief executive, Joe Jimenez, entered into the agreement with Mr. Cohen as part of an effort to gain insight into the approach the new administration would take on topics of interest to Novartis, particularly health care. The company said that, after an initial meeting with Mr. Cohen last March, it concluded that he did not have the expertise they had hoped for and decided not to go forward with the arrangement. But it said it learned the contract could only be canceled for cause and allowed it to expire in February.

Since revelations about the relationship last Tuesday, Novartis has sought to distance its new chief executive, Vas Narasimhan, from the controversy, saying that the decision to hire Mr. Cohen had been made by Mr. Jimenez and that Mr. Narasimhan had played no role. Mr. Jimenez retired from the company in January.

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In a letter to employees last week, Mr. Narasimhan called the deal a “mistake” that led the company to be criticized “by a world that expects more from us.”

Mr. Jimenez has not responded to requests for comment.

Novartis has said that Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, contacted them last November to inquire about the connection to Mr. Cohen, and that the company cooperated with the investigation and considers its role closed. Since last week, several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Patty Murray of Washington, sent Novartis letters demanding more information about the deal.

The telecommunications giant ATT has also acknowledged paying Mr. Cohen $600,000 for a similar arrangement. ATT has called the deal a “big mistake” and last week said its top Washington lobbyist would be leaving.

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