The North Carolina Republican Party and Sen. Thom Tillis Thomas (Thom) Roland TillisMcConnell locks down key GOP votes in Supreme Court fight Will Republicans' rank hypocrisy hinder their rush to replace Ginsburg? Trump supporters chant 'Fill that seat' at North Carolina rally MORE (R-N.C.) paid the controversial British data firm Cambridge Analytica $345,000 for a direct mail campaign and consulting work, The News & Observer reported Monday.

Cambridge Analytica, which the Trump campaign used during the 2016 election, has recently come under fire over reports it illegally obtained private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million people, but there is no indication the firm used any data from the breach in their work with the North Carolina Republicans.

The firm consulted Tillis on his successful 2014 campaign.

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Dallas Woodhouse, the state GOP's executive director, said the firm did not work on social media for the party and that the party does not plan to hire them again.



Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica on Friday following reports it had violated its privacy policy.

An undercover investigation by London’s Channel 4 secretly filmed the CEO of the firm saying he could use bribes and sex workers to trap politicians in compromising situations.

Cambridge Analytica has denied using bribes, entrapment "or so-called 'honey-traps' ” and said it did not use data harvested from Facebook profiles for the Trump campaign.

The firm has also said that, contrary to reports, it deleted all the Facebook data it had accumulated.