WASHINGTON (AP) – A firm connected to the data mining and analysis company Cambridge Analytica said Monday that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was in talks about taking an advisory role less than a week before Election Day, but the position never materialized.
SCL Group said in a statement to The Associated Press that Flynn signed a “statement of work” with the company on Nov. 2, 2016, about “possible advisory work.” Flynn didn’t take the position after President Donald Trump’s victory and Flynn’s subsequent appointment as the top national security aide.
The statement came just days after Flynn disclosed his interactions with the firm in an amended public financial disclosure filed with the White House. The AP reported the contents of the filing last week. The White House has since released it publicly in response to an AP reporter’s request.
On the disclosure, Flynn lists briefly serving as an adviser to a Virginia-based entity of SCL Group, which is the British parent company of Cambridge Analytica, the firm that worked with Trump’s campaign.
Wealthy Republican donor Robert Mercer, a hedge fund manager who also supported the Trump campaign, is a financial backer of Cambridge Analytica. The president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was also a vice president at the company before he joined the Trump campaign.