The Malta Independent on Sunday reports that the Democratic National Committee, which is suing Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks for interfering in the 2016 election, said in a court filing Friday, that the Maltese professor peddling dirt from Russian officials about Hillary Clinton, Joseph Mifsud, may be dead.
Bloomberg, earlier this week said that on the day Donald Trump’s former foreign-policy adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced to two weeks in jail for lying to investigators about his contacts, lawyers in an unrelated case raised the prospect about Mifsud’s death.
The DNC said it believes all the defendants in the case have been served with the complaint, “with the exception of Mifsud (who is missing and may be deceased).” The lawyers didn’t elaborate.
The report on the Malta Independent on Sunday says that the DNC’s statement did not offer any explanation as to why the Committee thinks the Russia-linked Maltese professor may not be alive, but noted that it “continues to monitor news sources for any signs of Mifsud’s whereabouts and will attempt service on Mifsud if and when he is found alive”.
In a sentencing memo filed on Friday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, charged with investigating the Trump-Russia collusion accusations, explains how the defendant (Papadopoulos) had identified Professor Mifsud “only after being prompted by a series of specific questions about when the defendant first learned about Russia’s disclosure of information related to the campaign and whether the defendant had ever ‘received any information or anything like that from a Russian government official”.
Mueller wrote: “While denying he received any information from a Russian government official, the defendant identified the Professor by name – while also falsely claiming he interacted with the Professor ‘before I was with Trump though’.
Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation after conversations he had with Mifsud, was sentenced to 14 days in prison Friday after he told a judge he was “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries.
Papadopoulos, the first Trump campaign aide sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation, acknowledged that his actions hindered an investigation of national importance, a move that the judge in his case said resulted in the 31-year-old putting his own selfinterest above that of his country.
“I made a dreadful mistake, but I am a good man who is eager for redemption,” Papadopoulos said.
The punishment was far less than the maximum six-month sentence sought by the government but more than the probation that Papadopoulos and his lawyers had asked for.
A report on the Daily Mail says how Joseph Mifsud, 57, became embroiled in scandal after he was said to have offered ‘dirt’ about the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to a Republican aide at a London hotel. The Maltese professor, based at the University of Stirling in Scotland until last year, has previously denied suggestions that he was a Russian agent saying: ‘Secret agent! I never got a penny from the Russians. My conscience is clean.’ It was claimed Mifsud, a former honorary director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, also told Papadopoulos he could set up a meeting with Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2016 election.
He is the first former campaign aide to be sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, which is also investigating any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Authorities were alerted after Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat during a drinking session in a London pub about his meetings with Mifsud.
Mifsud was lauded by the University of Stirling as part of its ‘diplomacy A-team’, a globetrotting ambassador ‘flying the flag’ for the Scottish institution. Allegations contained in federal indictments against Papadopoulos say that while Mifsud was working with Stirling, he was offering to cultivate his ‘substantial connections with Russian government officials’ to deliver ‘thousands of emails’ that would damage Mrs Clinton.
Mifsud has a colourful career history. He is said to have left a job at the University of Malta under a cloud in 2007, before becoming president of a university in Slovenia.
He quit that job, disputing claims he fiddled expenses worth £34,320. He was once described as ‘Ambassador Mifsud’ but although he worked for six months in the private office of the Maltese foreign minister, he was never a diplomat.
He has been, however, an adviser to Malta’s government on its entry to the EU, a guest lecturer at seminars around the world, a speaker on Capitol Hill, and an expert on Brexit for Russian MPs.
