Politics

Was Joseph Mifsud A Clinton Foundation Member?

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Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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  • Joseph Mifsud claimed to be a member of the Clinton Foundation
  • TheDCNF found no evidence that Mifsud is a member
  • He does appear to have donated to the group

A mysterious Maltese professor, who allegedly told a Trump campaign adviser about stolen former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emails, claimed to be a member of the Clinton Foundation in a little-known interview conducted in 2017.

“I am a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations … and you know which is the only foundation I am member of? The Clinton Foundation,” the professor, Joseph Mifsud, told the Italian news outlet Repubblica in November.

“Between you and me, my thinking is left-leaning. But I predicted Trump’s victory as well as Brexit. Everyone of us wants peace. If the governments don’t talk each other, we citizens must keep talking,” added Mifsud.

President Donald Trump’s campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty days earlier to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Mifsud and two Russian nationals during the campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller issued a statement of offense in the case revealing that Papadopoulos said that a professor — later identified as Mifsud — told him during a meeting in London in April 2016 that the Russian government had possession of “thousands” of Clinton-related emails.

Mifsud claimed to have ties to the Clinton Foundation in order to deny that he had anything to do with pilfered Clinton documents.

The Daily Caller News Foundation found no evidence that Mifsud is a member of the Clinton Foundation. He does appear to have donated to the group.

A search of the charity’s online donor database found two donations of $250 from a “Joseph Mifsud” and a “Joseph J. Mifsud.”

The dates for the donations are not disclosed on the Clinton Foundation website. The group did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Clinton Foundation donation records

Mifsud could not be reached for comment.

Mifsud, a former Maltese diplomat, is not the only mysterious Papadopoulos contact to have apparent links to the Clinton Foundation.

An Australian diplomat who met with Papadopoulos during the campaign has also worked with the charity group.

The Hill reported on March 5 that Alexander Downer, Australia’s high commissioner to the U.K., signed in 2006 a memorandum of understanding on behalf of the Australian government with former President Bill Clinton on a $25 million project to fund an AIDS program in Asia.

Downer is also a central figure in the Russia investigation because of a meeting he had with Papadopoulos in a London bar in May 2016.

Downer reportedly told other Australian government officials that Papadopoulos said in a booze-filled conversations that he had learned the Russian government obtained Clinton’s emails. The information from Downer is what would lead the FBI two months later to open its investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion. (RELATED: A London Meeting Before The Election Aroused George Papadopoulos’s Suspicions)

Numerous questions remain about Papadopoulos’ meetings with both Mifsud and Downer. It is unclear whether Papadopoulos told anyone else on the campaign about Mifsud’s claims about emails. It has also not been established that Papadopoulos actually told Downer about emails. Neither Downer nor Papadopoulos have commented on the matter.

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