This is some audacious spin. What actually happened: Pompeo…

In negotiations, the US maintained it wouldn't allow then-DRC president Joseph Kabila to run for a third term. So the private security company, Mer, helped Kabila craft a new plan to control his country: a secret power-sharing deal with another candidate. https://t.co/WjO7hPmfZv

The deal might've stayed secret—except somebody leaked the real vote count, showing Kabila's candidate, Tshisekedi, lost in a landslide to Martin Fayulu, who vowed to end corrupt mining deals. @FinancialTimes did great work confirming the data was legit: https://t.co/gmXYAHVlJD

With the real results public, the US was left with the question of whether to endorse the official result or denounce it, as the African Union and the European Union did. US officials in charge of DRC foreign policy debated. Here's how it played out:

US has a long history of undermining democracy in Congo. CIA backed the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, DRC's 1st prime minister. US presidents supported Mobutu's 34-yr dictatorship. Kabila won US support the way other modern-day autocrats have: with the facade of democracy.

The result: “We don’t have the apparatus of control over security and armed forces,” said a Tshisekedi administration official. Kabila “has people in charge in those places.”

US officials who favored endorsing the DRC election called it a pragmatic decision at a perilous moment. A Mer operative said: “Both sides have compromised on something. The United States compromised on the process; Kabila compromised on the end result.” https://t.co/WjO7hP4EAV

Kabila paid Mer $9.5m to lobby for him in DC. The firm hired 27 Americans onto the project. But it had a secret: It supplied surveillance tech that helped Kabila crack down on protests. One consultant Mer hired said if he had known that, “I absolutely would not have said yes.”

Kabila first turned to Mer in 2012, when Kinshasa hosted a conference drawing leaders from around the world. Mer’s services constituted the biggest upgrade in surveillance capabilities that Congo had seen, cost $17.75m, & helped police stamp out demonstrations.

By 2015, with tech from Mer, Huawei, & other companies, the DRC’s surveillance state was targeting dissidents more effectively. “Everything they knew in advance,” said one activist. “Everywhere we are going, everything we are planning.”

This double act—promising a free election in Congo while selling the tools that could undermine the country’s democracy—was unheard of. It all took place behind the curtain, in meetings & phone calls that left few witnesses & little trace of private influences involved.

"When the history of the Trump administration is written, much will be made of the president undermining democracy at home. But as the Congo episode shows, he also did so abroad." How a private security company lobbied the US to accept a rigged election: https://t.co/WjO7hPmfZv

This is some audacious spin. What actually happened: Pompeo endorsed the results of a rigged election in DRC after a private security company working for a Congolese autocrat back channelled with Giuliani and other Trump allies. Our investigation: https://t.co/WjO7hPmfZv

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