At a time when the Russian government was escalating its efforts to help Donald Trump win the presidency, Rick Gates, then deputy chairman of the Trump campaign, was making inquiries of his own. Shortly after he joined the Trump campaign alongside Paul Manafort in 2016, Gates sought proposals from an Israeli intelligence firm, Psy-Group, for social-media influence and opposition-research campaigns, The New York Times reports.
Gates was first introduced to Psy-Group in March 2016, just days after he and Manafort joined the campaign to stave off a Ted Cruz-led Republican revolt. George Birnbaum, a longtime Republican operative who attended the introductory meeting at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington, told the Times that Gates “was interested in finding the technology to achieve what they were looking for.” Gates reportedly sought a proposal targeting Cruz through the use of fake online personas, which was intended to corral 5,000 Republican delegates away from the Texas senator and toward Trump. Another proposal, per the Times, described opposition research against Hillary Clinton. A third mapped out a months-long plan to sow discord. Together, the proposals were labeled “Project Rome,” and referred to Trump, Clinton, and Cruz “Lion,” “Forest,” and “Bear,” respectively. In total, the work would have cost the Trump campaign $3 million. (A lawyer for Gates declined the Times’s request for comment.)
While there is no evidence that the Trump campaign officially retained Psy-Group, Joel Zamel, the head of the firm, did meet with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in August 2016. George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman and adviser to Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, also attended that meeting, which was first [reported]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/us/politics/trump-jr-saudi-uae-nader-prince-zamel.html) by the Times in May. Nader and Zamel have provided conflicting accounts as to whether Psy-Group worked with the Trump campaign. Employees at the intelligence firm told the Times that Zamel requested an updated “Project Rome” proposal ahead of the Trump Tower meeting. But Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Zamel, denied that his client ever discussed specific proposals with Trump Jr. or Trump campaign officials. “Mr. Zamel never pitched, or otherwise discussed, any of Psy-Group’s proposals relating to the U.S. elections with anyone related to the Trump campaign, including . . . Donald Trump Jr., except for outlining the capabilities of some of his companies in general terms,” he said in a statement.
The Trump Tower meeting was not the first time Zamel’s name surfaced in connection with the Russia probe. Back in May, a report from The Wall Street Journal alleged that Psy-Group inked a business deal with Robert Mercer-backed data firm Cambridge Analytica in December 2016; the deal reportedly “outline[d] a partnership whereby the two firms could cooperate on a case-by-case basis to provide intelligence and social-media services,” the aim of which was, in part, to help both companies win government contracts. A source told the Journal that the deal was signed “without Mr. Zamel’s involvement,” but the existence of the deal drew yet another link between the Russia probe’s fringe players.
The Gates/Psy-Group saga, too, is something of a Who’s Who of Robert Mueller’s investigation: Gates, of course, cut a plea deal with Mueller’s team, and Nader is reportedly cooperating with the special counsel. Prince has also been ensnared in the investigation, for his involvement in a January 2017 Seychelles meeting, and has previously said that he cooperated with Mueller. People familiar with the matter told the Times that Mueller has obtained copies of the various proposals Gates perused, and that he is particularly interested in a $2 million payment Nader made to Zamel after the 2016 election.
