Cambridge Analytica-linked researcher: Data wasn’t helpful to Trump campaign

The researcher at the center of the Cambridge Analytica scandal told Congress on Tuesday that he doesn’t believe the data he handed over helped the Trump campaign.

Aleksandr Kogan, a psychologist at the University of Cambridge, told a Senate Commerce subcommittee that he doubted his datasets on Facebook users would have much utility for a political operation.

“I believe there is almost no chance this data could have been helpful to a political campaign — and I still have not seen any evidence to indicate that the Trump campaign used this dataset to microtarget voters,” Kogan said in prepared testimony.

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Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political consulting firm, has denied that it used Kogan’s data in its work for the Trump campaign.

The academic claimed that there have been a number of falsehoods spreading the controversy.

For one, he disputed reporting that 87 million people had their data improperly turned over to Cambridge Analytica. According to Kogan, he turned over only limited data on about 30 million users to the firm, an action that was appropriate under the terms that users agreed to at the time.

But Kogan also said he now understands why the revelations prompted such an outcry.

“I’m very regretful that I did not better anticipate this reaction,” Kogan said.