Where did you get that information? Channel4 is reporting that Mercer donated to the Trump campaign on the condition that he would take on Steve Bannon and hire CA. Steven Bannon joined the Trump campaign in August 2016, after Trump won the primaries in May.
They did hire CA in order to get Mercer's support and donations - they just didn't actually use their data once Trump had access to the more accurate (and more old-fashioned) central RNC database, and apparently never used the psychographic data at the heart of the controversy at all. See e.g. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-campaign-phased-out-use-o...
Like, I know the news media have spun the fact that one of Trump's big, important donors made them hire CA as proof they relied on CA to win the election, but really it should be the opposite - it should call into question whether their hiring was justified by what they offered the campaign.
I have no idea who could conceivably be taking issue with your concise and correct post (given the apparent downvotes). The dates don't lie. What was Felix Sater's role at that point, too?
