FBI Probe Into Possible Russian Collusion Looking Into San Antonio-Based Digital Ops

SAN ANTONIO, TX — As the FBI probes possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials in last year's general election, the role played by San Antonio-based digital operations overseen by senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is gaining increased scrutiny, according to reports.

CNN reported that federal investigators are looking at the campaign's 2016 data analytics programs conducted out of San Antonio under the direction of local digital advertising executive Brad Parscale. The firm first gained notice after being awarded a multimillion-dollar contract by the campaign of Donald Trump to handle its digital campaign strategy—a move raising the eyebrows of industry observers given the firm's lack of experience in handling such large-scale operations and its status as something of an upstart.

Giles-Parscale, the San Antonio web design and digital marketing company that Parscale owns, got more than $91 million from the Trump campaign and an allied super PAC in the course of just 18 months, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Parscale remained on the payroll through January and is now associated with Trump's reelection campaign, CNN reported. FEC records show Parscale's firm secured another $1.6 million through March for work described as digital consultation and online advertising, according to the CNN report.

Related story: As Support Dwindles With Election Day Looming, Donald Trump Acts to Suppress, Not Expand, Vote: Report

As part of the widening investigation into possible Russian meddling, the FBI has collected data related to computer bots — software running automated scripts over the internet — that consistently pushed negative information on Hillary Clinton and positive information on Trump during their heated campaign, according to the cable news network.

An FBI spokesman declined CNN's requests for comment, and the White House did not respond to messages. Similarly, Parscale did not respond to phone messages left at Giles-Parscale.

Parscale, 41, quickly emerged from an obscure figure to playing a prominent role in the Trump campaign in work dubbed “Project Alamo," a nod to his San Antonio base. His team of more than 100 digital and media experts worked closely with the Republican National Committee, which invested heavily in data and digital technology, CNN noted in its report.

The RNC provided the Trump campaign with a massive database containing details on millions of voters' attitudes, buying habits and personal information gleaned from public and private sources. Kushner worked closely with the team, and Donald Trump Jr. at one point made a point to visit the firm's headquarters while taking time to pose with its members in a photo shared on the firm's Twitter account.

Parscale ran Trump's digital operation, media buys and overall advertising, "...an exceptionally large role for someone with little experience in political campaigns," CNN noted.

“It was a data-driven campaign, so I was in the middle of it all,” Parscale boasted in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News after the election. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Parscale also bragged about a successful campaign aimed at suppressing the minority vote with the firm's machinations.

Since his election, Parscale has been lionized and hailed as a "genius" by the Right.

CNN noted that Parscale's digital operation relied heavily on Facebook for targeting voters and fundraising, Parscale has said, noting that Facebook helped the campaign raise more than $260 million. Along with RNC operatives dispatched to San Antonio, the operation employed staff from Cambridge Analytica, the U.S.-based offshoot of a British company that deploys what it calls “psychographics,” research using personality, values and other voter traits for targeting, according to the report.

BusinessWeek quoted an unnamed member of the Trump campaign staff late in the campaign as saying that their digital operation used Facebook ads and other means to suppress Clinton’s vote totals with negative messages aimed at African-Americans, young women and segments of liberals, CNN reported.

In an earlier interview with the Express-News, Parscale lauded his operation’s success in identifying 14.4 million persuadable voters in several swing states just prior to the election, categorizing the effort as key to Trump’s victory.

“That’s why we won," Parscale said. "We knew just the voters we needed to turn out, and we turned them out in big numbers." Those efforts in March earned him the Digital Strategist of the Year Award bestowed by industry peers in the American Association of Political Consultants. He's also earned ardent admiration from conservatives, including commentator Lou Dobbs who dubbed his success as "the Parscale effect" after a recent interview with the computer maven

Publicly, Parscale has grown quiet as the Russian collusion probe grows. But, like the high-profile client for whom he secured the presidency, Parscale has taken to Twitter as a preferred forum in which to air his views. And, again like his high-profile client, is blaming the media for the unwanted attention while suggesting newly emerging stories referring to him are fake news while labeling as "haters" his detractors.

“SO fake news,” Parscale tweeted in a May 20 reaction to a CNN report on a former Trump staffer's efforts to set up a fund to help associates ensnared in the Russia investigation pay their legal bills. “Let’s fight back against @CNN.” In another tweet the same day, he pulled no punches in targeting the media, borrowing a favorite phrase from Trump in deflecting his own personal woes: “#1 lesson I’ve learned. Media is the enemy of this country.”

But along the way, Parscale gained affection for Kushner while gaining animus for "the media," gushing in a December tweet that Trump's son-in-law is not only a "genius," but also the nicest guy ever.

>>> Photo of Brad Parscale via Twitter