CREW requests:

copies of all communications from January 1, 2017, to present sent to or from anyone within or on behalf of SCL Group, including but not limited to Josh Weerasinghe, to anyone within the Defense Contract Management Agency (“DCMA”) involved in procurement contracts on behalf of the agency; copies of all communications from January 1, 2017, to the present sent to or from anyone within or on behalf of Cambridge Analytica, including but not limited to Josh Weerasinghe, to anyone within the DCMA involved in procurement contracts on behalf of the agency; copies of all records pertaining to any contract bid submitted to DOD by SCL Group and/or Cambridge Analytica from January 1, 2017, to the present.

By way of background, Cambridge Analytica is a data science firm whose parent company, SCL Group, is headquartered in London. The Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytics for “data management services.” Post-election its parent company, SCL Group, has pushed to its U.S. operations “by pursuing contracts that could be driven by the new president’s policy agenda[.]” SCL Group has close ties to White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon who, until recently, served on Cambridge Analytica’s board.

Given the role Cambridge Analytica played in the Trump campaign and its close ties to people in the president’s inner circle, including Stephen Bannon, hedge fund titan Robert L. Mercer, and former advisor to SCL Group Michael Flynn, questions have been raised about whether the company is exploiting these connections to win lucrative government contracts. Further, SCL’s efforts to obtain more government contracts coincides with the president’s pledge to greatly expand military and an executive order in which the president announced the launch of “the ‘great rebuilding of the Armed Forces[.]” The requested records may help answer these questions and help explain what, if any, role SCL Group’s close ties to the Trump administration have played in its efforts to secure contracts with DOD.

2017-2-20 FOIA Request Defense Contract Management Agency