HE is, suggest American papers, Donald Trump’s Kremlin matchmaker. And based firmly in Scotland.
Little-known Stirling University teacher Joseph Mifsud has been named by the Washington Post as the Trump campaign’s link with Russia. But the Maltese-born professor is having nothing of it. “I am an academic,” he told the US title. “I do not even speak Russian.”
Mr Mifsud’s name was thrown in to the public domain in America on Tuesday. He was, the Post revealed, the academic named as a go-between between the Trump campaign and Russia in a criminal indictment.
One Trump campaign staffer, George Papadopoulos, has admitted misleading FBI agents over his relationship with Mr Mifsud.
Mr Mifsud has told London’s The Daily Telegraph he had had absolutely no contact with Russian Government officials. “I have a clear conscience,” he said.
However, the Washington Post said he had boasted to an assistant of his relationships with high-profile Kremlin leaders and claimed to have had a private meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
Court papers filed in America suggest that Mr Mifsud promised Mr Papadopoulos some Russian “dirt” on Mr Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton. This material – of a kind Russians refer to as “kompromat” – including thousands of emails.
The papers also allege that Mr Mifsud was going to put Mr Papadopoulos in touch with a woman, who was unnamed, who was Mr Putin’s niece.
Mr Mifsud has been a full-time teaching fellow at Stirling since May this year. He has had a relationship with Stirling since at least 2014, according to STV.
A former diplomat, Mr Mifsud is director of a body called the London Academy of Diplomacy, which was accredited by Stirling University. Investigations in the United States continue into whether President Trump colluded with Russian Government officials, including to dig dirt on Mrs Clinton, a former secretary of state.
Investigations also continue in to the use of Russian propaganda and social media armies to support Mr Trump’s campaign.
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