RUSSIAGATE - EXCLUSIVE PICTURE The last known photo of Joseph Mifsud

Joseph Mifsud, one of the key players in the Russiagate scandal, was last seen in Zurich while visiting his lawyers on May 21 2018 before disappearing. The Associated Press had mentioned a picture of him shot with an iPhone which has never been published. Il Foglio can reveal the exclusive picture of Joseph Mifsud, to whom special counsel Robert Mueller referred to as “The Professor” while investigating on Russian interferences in the American electoral campaign.

A long-standing faculty member at the Link Campus, a Rome-based university chaired by former Italian interior minister Vincenzo Scotti where many prominent Five Star Movement officials have taught, the Maltese lecturer is now back at the forefront of the Russiagate investigation. According to the Washington Post and the New York Times, US president Donald Trump sent his Attorney general William Barr on a mission to Rome on September 27 to speak to Italian officials. The Trump administration is keen to “investigate the investigators”, meaning it is trying to gather information on the Mueller investigation in order to discredit the special counsel’s findings. Trump has reportedly pressured the Australian PM Scott Morrison, probably to verify the alleged involvement of the austrialian ambassador Alexander Downer, and is now appealing to the Italian government for help.

Trump’s inner circle sees the Russiagate investigation as a “conspiracy” devised by Western secret services in accordance with the US “deep state” (the Cia and the Fbi). They are accused of having created a scandal before the 2016 elections to pressure Trump to resign in case he won. The conspiracy theory conceived by George Papadopoulos, Trump’s former campaign advisor, is now widely shared by the US administration.
According to the Washington Post, Barr came to Italy along with Us attorney in Conncticut John Durham, who is investigating on behalf of the Department for Justice on the “lawfulness and appropriateness” of the US intelligence’s activities during the 2016 electoral campaign.

Joseph Mifsud, the former lecturer at Link Campus, in April 2016 informed Papadopoulos that the Russians had gotten hold of “thousands of dirt emails” on Hillary Clinton according to Mueller’s evidence. Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to figures close to Vladimir Putin including Ivan Timofeev, a member of the Kremlin-founded International Affairs Council think tank. Moreover, Mifsud and Papadopoulos met for the first time at Link Campus in Rome in March 2016.        

The Maltese academic found himself at Link Campus, where he liaised with the Lomonosov University in Moscow, when the documents of the investigation were made public on October 31 2017 and disappeared the following day.

Mifsud was hidden in an apartment in Rome paid for by Link Campus while he was sought after by the police il Foglio revealed in an investigation. The flat was paid by the university through a firm co-owned by Mifsud himself.  

There have been no news on the Maltese academic ever since his rental contract expired. Stephan Roh, Mifsud’s lawyer and shareholder at Link Campus where he owns 5 per cent of the assets, told Il Foglio: “Defending the interests of our client Prof Mifsud, we have discussed with key persons at Link University in Rome that they should come forward and testify to US investigators.”. Where is Mifsud now? “Unfortunately, Prof Mifsud does not contact our law firm for unknown reason. We have been informed that he is in Italy, at least until recently”.  

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• Luciano Capone

• Cresciuto in Irpinia, a Savignano. Studi a Milano, Università Cattolica. Liberista per formazione, giornalista per deformazione. Al Foglio prima come lettore, poi collaboratore, infine redattore. Mi occupo principalmente di economia, ma anche di politica, inchieste, cultura, varie ed eventuali