The fallout has only just begun

Trump donor Rebekah Mercer in August 2016 asked the chief executive of a data-analytics firm working for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign whether the company could better organize the Hillary Clinton -related emails being released by WikiLeaks, according to a person familiar with their email exchange.

The previously undisclosed details from the exchange between Ms. Mercer and Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix show how an influential Trump supporter was looking to leverage the hacked Clinton-related messages to boost Mr. Trump’s campaign.

[...]

In the email, Ms. Mercer asked Mr. Nix whether the suggested organization of the emails was something Cambridge Analytica or the Government Accountability Institute—a conservative nonprofit that focuses on investigative research—could do, the person said. Ms. Mercer has sat on the board of the institute, which has received funding from her family.

[...]

Cambridge Analytica is partly owned by Ms. Mercer and her father, hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

[...]

Ms. Mercer had a prominent role in the Trump campaign effort. The Mercer family gave $2 million to super PACs backing Mr. Trump. Beyond their donations, the Mercers were highly influential in the campaign: In August, about a week before Ms. Mercer sent her email regarding WikiLeaks, the Mercers recommended Mr. Trump install Mr. Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, two of their top allies, to lead his campaign. Mr. Trump heeded their advice.

[...]

As The Wall Street Journal previously reported, Ms. Mercer and a person close to her had a brief conversation regarding Mrs. Clinton’s deleted emails in June 2016, a month after Mr. Cruz had dropped out of the race, the person said. The person said they discussed whether it would make sense to try to access and release those emails, but ultimately decided that looking for them would create “major legal liabilities” and would be a “terrible idea.”

  WSJ

One of many.

The Journal also reported that longtime Republican operative Peter W. Smith in 2016 mounted a campaign to obtain the same 33,000 emails, which he believed were stolen from Mrs. Clinton’s private server, likely by Russian hackers. Mr. Smith died in mid-May at age 81.

And, suddenly, that's looking suspicious again.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining what, if any, role former Trump adviser and aide Mike Flynn may have played in Mr. Smith’s effort, as part of the larger probe into whether Trump associates colluded with Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, the Journal reported earlier this year.

And, today...

Robert Mercer, a billionaire investor who is a big financial backer of many conservative causes and a patron of the former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon, is stepping down as co-chief executive of Renaissance Technologies, the giant hedge fund.

[...]

Beyond donating to political campaigns, Mr. Mercer was a large financial backer of Cambridge Analytica, a voter-data firm that worked with the presidential campaign of President Trump.

[...]

The one-paragraph letter to investors did not give a reason for Mr. Mercer’s decision.

[...]

In the letter on Thursday, Mr. Mercer said that he was selling his stake in Breitbart to his daughters “for personal reasons.”

  NYT

Not even holding his Breitbart stock? I smell fish.

Renaissance manages more than $50 billion in assets.

Whose assets? I smell fish.

The Mercers were responsible for bringing Bannon and Kellyanne Conway to the Trump team, so I've no doubt they were a lot deeper in the Russian hacking/collusion story than we've heretofore heard.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 5/2 18: