In recent weeks, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, with backing from President...
ROME - In recent weeks, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, with backing from President Donald Trump, has stepped up an inquiry into the origins of an FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A central figure is Joseph Mifsud, a 59-year-old Maltese academic involved in law and diplomacy education programs in London and Rome, who also had contacts with Russian officials and met with George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, on several occasions. Over the next month, Mifsud and Papadopoulos held a series of meetings and had regular phone and email contact, with Mifsud offering to introduce Papadopoulos to European leaders and officials with connections in the Russian government.
In a meeting with a Western diplomat 10 days later, Papadopoulos suggested the Russian government could help the Trump campaign via the anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Clinton, the report says.Mifsud hasn’t been seen in public since November 2017, when he was spotted at Link Campus and spoke briefly to a reporter from Italy’s la Repubblica newspaper.
Former associates of Mifsud’s said they had had no contact with him since late 2017. His daughter is said to be still living in London, while his ex-wife lives in Malta.In an op-ed in the Washington Post in May, former FBI director James Comey referred to Mifsud as a “Russian agent”, although he did not say why he believed that to be the case. Mueller’s report does not directly make the same allegation.
“I simply do not believe he had Russian contacts, especially at a high level. He was personally a nice guy to talk to, I would even say he was a good connector, but nothing high-level,” the official said. “He was also disorganized, he would start one thing, then move to another before completing the first. I laugh when I read what is said about him.”Barr and his associate, veteran U.S. prosecutor John Durham, last visited Rome on Sept.
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