Cambridge Analytica whistleblower asked not to come to TT

Christopher Wylie.

DATA consultant and Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie has been asked not to come to TT to give evidence, reported Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

In July Al-Rawi announced Wylie had agreed to give evidence in this country about the involvement here of the now defunct Cambridge Analytica, a controversial British political consulting and data mining firm, but feared for his life. The Attorney General also referred to the Netflix documentary The Great Hack, which claimed the 2010 "Do So" campaign was created by Cambridge Analytica to dissuade Afro-Trinidadians from voting.

Al-Rawi, speaking with Newsday after a meeting of the Special Select Committee on the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2019 at the Parliament building yesterday, said he met with Wylie on several occasions, together with Wylie's attorneys. He explained he was called to the UK and met with several stakeholders to interview Wylie, including the New York attorney general, the information commissioner, the FBI, the CIA, and a number of UK law enforcement agencies.

"Mr Wylie, from the instructions that were given to me, agreed that TT was the victim of Mrs Persad-Bissessar and her government. And he agreed that Cambridge Analytica had abused the laws and the people of TT."

He said Wylie informed him, in the presence of Al-Rawi's UK attorneys and Wylie's attorneys, that advances were being made to him and others to not give evidence in TT.

"In those circumstances, he has not committed to a final giving of evidence. But I can say with certainty. from my interviews with him as Attorney General of TT. in the presence of my UK lawyers. that Mr Wylie has a lot to say."

Al-Rawi reported that a lot of what Wylie has to say about TT was reflected in his writings and what he said before the senate committees and house committees before which he appeared in the US and UK.