Robert Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who has come under media scrutiny for his role in helping elect Donald Trump, announced today he would step down from his role as co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies. The decision, announced in a memo to Renaissance employees, followed a BuzzFeed News exposé revealing the connections of Breitbart — partially owned by Mercer — to white nationalists and neo-Nazis.
Sources familiar with Renaissance informed BuzzFeed News in recent days of significant anger within the company about the report, which revealed that former Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos had cultivated white nationalists and used them to generate ideas and help edit stories on the site.
Mercer's statement specifically denounces Yiannopoulos and states that "I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him." He also announced his intention to sell his stake in Breitbart to his daughters.
Mercer was a major funder of Donald Trump's presidential effort.
That BuzzFeed expose was a huge hit, but there may be other contributing factors as well.
Damn! I cannot even imagine HAVING seven billion dollars much less OWING seven billion dollars.Another old story that gained little traction at the time Nazi-lover, Trump funder, Bannon buddy Robert Mercer owes IRS 7 BILLION DOLLARS. https://t.co/BHedMWfwXP— Candy A Liberal (@candyasslib) November 2, 2017
That's right, there is an ever increasing possibility that Robert Mercer will be called in to testify before the Mueller investigation, assuming that it has not already happened.Bob Mercer selling stake in Breitbart won't reduce his legal exposure over owning Cambridge Analytica, likely central to the Mueller probe— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) November 2, 2017
So to be clear, with Mercer's daughter taking over there will still be money flowing to Steven Bannon and Breitbart, but this is still a huge hit to the conservative media, and certainly sends a signal to Donald Trump that NOBODY is safe regardless of their wealth and power.
(H/T to Crooks and Liars.)
Source http://ift.tt/2zbDZrE
