British professor ‘told Trump aide Russia had dirt on Clinton’
A LONDON professor was last night dragged into an inquiry into Russian interference in the US presidential election over allegations the Kremlin had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate.
The inquiry claimed its first scalp when it emerged that a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators. George Papadopoulous is now cooperating with authorities after being caught out misleading FBI agents over his contacts with a London professor who has Russian connections.
The London professor is not named in the official court documents but The Daily Telegraph can disclose his identity as Prof Joseph Mifsud, honorary director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, which is affiliated to the University of Stirling in Scotland.
Prof Mifsud confirmed he was the London professor described in the document drawn up by special counsel Robert Mueller but vehemently denied any wrongdoing. He said: “I have a clear conscience.”
In a day of dramatic developments, US prosecutors made public Papadopoulous’s guilty plea hours after they brought charges against Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, for money laundering and tax evasion.
Mr Manafort and his colleague Richard Gates were
accused of secretly lobbying for a prorussia Ukrainian political party in return for tens of millions of dollars. They deny the charges.
Papadopoulous, who was living in London at the time, told the FBI that the Uk-based professor had introduced him to “an individual in Moscow” with “connections to the Russian ministry of foreign affairs”.
Papadopoulous informed the investigators that the professor had told him at a meeting that “they [the Russians] have dirt on her [Mrs Clinton]”.
The US court documents said that Papadopoulous alleged that “they [the Russians] have thousands of emails”.
He was interviewed in January and arrested in July after stepping off a plane in Washington DC for misleading investigators. He pleaded guilty at the start of the month after he was caught lying over the dates of his contacts with Prof Mifsud.
Papadopoulous had insisted initially that any communications with the professor and with a Russian contact had taken place prior to his appointment as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign in March 2016. In fact the crucial meeting took place a month later, in April. Prof Mifsud poured scorn on the FBI case, insisting he had no knowledge of any emails containing “dirt on Mrs Clinton”. His denial bolsters suggestions that Papadopoulous may have fabricated or at least exaggerated claims of his Russian connections to impress Trump campaign bosses.
Prof Mifsud said he introduced Papadopoulous to the director of a Russian think tank and that he also tried to set up Papadopoulous with experts linked to the EU. But he disputes the contents of a crucial conversation said by the FBI to have taken place at a London hotel in April 2016.
According to the FBI: “During this meeting, the professor told defendant Papadopoulous that on that trip he (the professor) learned that the Russians had obtained ‘dirt’ on then-candidate Clinton.”
Prof Mifsud told The Daily Telegraph he was “upset” by the claims because they were “incredible”. He also rejected a suggestion in the report that he had introduced Papadopoulous to a “female Russian national” described as a relative of President Vladimir Putin.