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Trump Campaign App Tracked Movements of Millions of Users and Served up ‘Intimate’ View of Social Networks: Report

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“Voter surveillance tool of extraordinary power”

The Trump campaign’s smartphone app tracked the movements of millions of the president’s supporters, gave the campaign an “intimate” view of users’ social networks, and delivered massive amounts of data that Trump will be able to use in the future, for a wide variety of purposes.

“The app lets Trump’s team communicate directly with the 2.8 million people who downloaded it — more than any other app in a U.S. presidential campaign — and if they gave permission, with their entire contact list as well,” the Associated Press reports.

“Once installed, it can track their behavior on the app and in the physical world, push out headlines, fundraise, sell MAGA merchandise and sync with mass texting operations, according to the app’s privacy policy and user interface.”

CBS News earlier this year reported the campaign’s app allows “for the collection of very detailed information about a person’s movements.”

The AP notes that while the campaign might be over, the “data strategy is very much alive, and the digital details the app collected can be put to multiple other uses — to fundraise for the president’s future political ventures, stoke Trump’s base, or even build an audience for a new media empire.”

In June MIT Technology Review called the Trump campaign’s app “a voter surveillance tool of extraordinary power.”

The app has “location-based tools and other features to help the campaign crowdsource new users,” the AP notes, adding there is a “gamified loyalty system, where supporters could accumulate points to spend on signed MAGA hats or pose for a picture with Trump.”

The app is still available for download.

“With the most recent update, you can join the official army for Trump,” the iPhone version says.

Image by Leslie via Flickr and a CC license
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CRIME?

Bill Barr Could Lose His Law License Over Trump DOJ Spy Scandal: Expert Says ‘Expect a Lot of Legal Fallout’

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On CNN Thursday, Norm Eisen, who acted as counsel for House Democrats during the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, expressed outrage at the New York Times report that the Justice Department secretly spied on members of Congress investigating Trump’s ties to Russia — and predicted that former Attorney General William Barr could face the loss of his law license over the scandal.

“In my 30 years in Washington representing people in front of Congress, and at DOJ working in government and the executive branch as a staff member like those staff members who got subpoenaed in congress, it is completely without a precedent,” said Eisen. “It’s groundbreaking and earth-shaking. And there are going to be consequences. There’s going to be fallout.”

“You’re going to see congressional observations, you’re going to need a policy or laws to protect reporters and members of Congress,” said Eisen. “They even went after the child of one of these targets on the Hill to get information about a child’s account from Apple! And then there’s the question of Bill Barr … we’ve already had two judges criticize him for a coverup in connection with protecting Trump from obstruction charges. Now people are going to be looking at his law license afresh. So expect a lot of legal fallout from this.”

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Bill Barr ‘Knew What He Was Hiding’ When He Lied to Senate Panel About Secret Investigations: Former FBI Official

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Appearing on CNN on Friday morning a former senior director in the FBI said that it was apparent that ex-Attorney General Bill Barr was well aware that he was lying when he denied any knowledge of investigations requested by Donald Trump into his political enemies.

Speaking with hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar, Peter Strzok — who headed up the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division — was asked about the blockbuster report from the New York Times that the Trump Justice Department under both Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions was digging into phone records of members of Congress.

“As the Justice Department investigated who was behind leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration, it took a highly unusual step: Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members. One was a minor,” The New York Times reported Thursday. “All told, the records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, then the panel’s top Democrat and now its chairman, according to committee officials and two other people briefed on the inquiry.”

During his CNN appearance, Strzok watched a clip of Barr stumbling around when asked by then Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) whether the DOJ had been pressed by the president to open any investigations.

As the clip ran, the former FBI official could be seen shaking his head, which led CNN host Berman to ask him what he had had just seen.

“As an investigator, you begin to understand when people are not telling the truth, avoiding answers,” Strzok replied. “When I see long pauses, vague answers, refusing to answer, it’s clear things are there. It’s clear Kamala Harris knew exactly what was going on and Bill Barr knew what he was hiding there. It was clear he wasn’t being forthcoming in his answers to those questions.”

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CRIME?

Trump DOJ Spied on Democrats in Congress — Targeting Intel Committee Lawmakers, Staff and Even Their Children: NYT

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Shocking new information is coming out about the scope of Department of Justice efforts to track down leaks about the Trump administration.

“As the Justice Department investigated who was behind leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration, it took a highly unusual step: Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members. One was a minor,” The New York Times reported Thursday. “All told, the records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, then the panel’s top Democrat and now its chairman, according to committee officials and two other people briefed on the inquiry.”

Two of Trump’s attorneys general are implicated in the scandal.

“Prosecutors, under the beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, were hunting for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Ultimately, the data and other evidence did not tie the committee to the leaks, and investigators debated whether they had hit a dead end and some even discussed closing the inquiry,” the newspaper reported. “But William P. Barr revived languishing leak investigations after he became attorney general a year later. He moved a trusted prosecutor from New Jersey with little relevant experience to the main Justice Department to work on the Schiff-related case and about a half-dozen others, according to three people with knowledge of his work who did not want to be identified discussing federal investigations.”

The effort is unprecedented.

“The zeal in the Trump administration’s efforts to hunt leakers led to the extraordinary step of subpoenaing communications metadata from members of Congress — a nearly unheard-of move outside of corruption investigations. While Justice Department leak investigations are routine, current and former congressional officials familiar with the inquiry said they could not recall an instance in which the records of lawmakers had been seized as part of one,” the newspaper reported. “Moreover, just as it did in investigating news organizations, the Justice Department secured a gag order on Apple that expired this year, according to a person familiar with the inquiry, so lawmakers did not know they were being investigated until Apple informed them last month.”

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