Trump-Linked Data Firm Removes State Dept., NATO Logos After NBC Questions – NBCNews.com

Bob Mercer attends the World Science Festival Gala in New York in 2014. Andrew Toth / Getty Images

Federal election filings show that Cambridge Analytica received $11.7 million from Trump and Cruz super PACs in 2015 and 2016. It received $5.7 million from a separate super PAC, Make America Number 1, which first supported Cruz and then Trump, and is primarily funded to the tune of $15.5 million by hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

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Mercer, who declined to comment, is also an investor in Cambridge Analytica. Mercer did not respond to a request for comment.

SCL, which was founded in the U.K. more than a decade ago, created Cambridge Analytica as a U.S. arm in 2013. Alexander Nix, who is the CEO of Cambridge, has been a director at SCL since 2003.

According to a company spokesman, however, Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group are "two very different companies that shouldn't be conflated." The two companies, which are both private, have "separate management, staff, and offices," he said. "The group is being reorganized in order to improve brand identity. Henceforth all political and commercial work is being conducted as Cambridge Analytica and all our government work as SCL Group. A corporate reorganization along these lines will follow."

In the past SCL Group has been involved in elections around the world from St. Lucia to Nigeria. That work has only involved free and fair elections, the spokesman said. All work on U.S. elections has been conducted by Cambridge Analytica.

SCL Group was awarded its first contracts with the State Department in February and March of 2017 to help the government's Global Engagement Center (GEC) effect behavior change amongst potential recruits to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The two contracts, totaling $496,232, are described as "target audience research." The contracts were not opened up for competitive bidding due to "national security" concerns before they were awarded to SCL, according to the website

In 2015 SCL Group ran a NATO training program on behavioral change science at the NATO-affiliated Centre of Excellence in Latvia.

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Trump-Linked Data Firm Removes State Dept., NATO Logos After NBC Questions - NBCNews.com