The final report of special counsel Robert Mueller failed to explore illuminating background of one of the main actors in the Russia “collusion” narrative.
Information obtained by The Epoch Times indicates that Joseph Mifsud, the academic whose interactions with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos ultimately produced the justification for the FBI to investigate several Trump campaign staff members, may have acted under the supervision of, or at least with the knowledge of, former Italian interior minister Vincenzo Scotti.
Mueller took over the FBI counterintelligence investigation into alleged Trump–Russia “collusion” in 2017 and, in March, concluded that “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
It was also Scotti who then suggested to Mifsud that he should connect Papadopoulos with Mifsud’s Russian contacts, according to Roh.
Mifsud “was reporting all and everything, [including] Russia matters to Scotti, and Scotti gave instructions to Mifsud,” Roh said in an email.
Timofeev, an academic with a think tank tied to the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, was the only person with ties to the Russian government whom Mifsud introduced to Papadopoulos.
“You can see that Ivan Timofeev was in contact with the Link principals, and with Scotti,” Roh said. “Scotti was involved in the Timofeev matter.”
Who Is Scotti?
A Naples native with an economics degree, Scotti held various posts in the Italian government since the 1960s. His career culminated with the interior minister post from 1990 to 1992, when he oversaw the country’s domestic intelligence apparatus. Later in 1992, he also served a short stint as the minister of foreign affairs. The last time he held public office was from 2008 to 2011, as the undersecretary of state at the foreign affairs ministry.In 1999, Scotti founded Link as a subsidiary of the University of Malta, with help from Mifsud, a Maltese who was then the head of the university’s education department. The University of Malta later cut its ties with Link.
Scotti has been Link’s director while Mifsud was its “director of international relations” and recruited foreign students for Link.
Aside from courses in the arts, communication, business, and political sciences, Link also offered master’s degrees in “Intelligence and Security” as well as “Behavioral Analysis and Applied Sciences to Investigations, the Intelligence and Homeland Security.” These two courses of study later disappeared from Link’s website.
Officials from the FBI, CIA, and other Western security and intelligence agencies attended events at or taught at Link.
Some of Link’s staff even went on to take prominent diplomatic, security, and intelligence posts in the Italian government.
Mifsud–Papadopoulos
After Mifsud and Papadopoulos met, they remained in contact and twice met in London. During the second meeting, on April 26, 2016, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that Russians had thousands of emails related to former State Secretary Hillary Clinton that contained information damaging to her, according to what Papadopoulos told the FBI. Mifsud has denied to the FBI ever saying that.But if Mifsud wasn’t a counterintelligence threat, Nunes said, “then that would cast doubt on the special counsel’s fundamental depiction of him and his activities, and raise questions about the veracity of the special counsel’s statements and affirmations.”
Link supposedly cut ties with Mifsud after his conversations with Papadopoulos came out in late 2017.
