Thread by @JewhadiTM

Devin Nunes: Clinton 'dirt' tipster Joseph Mifsud has ties to State Department washex.am/2VJkh1S

Nunes said Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud — who told George Papadopoulos the Russians had thousands of @HillaryClinton's emails — likely has links to "U.S., British, and Italian intel services" and the State Dept where Clinton served as the country's top diplomat.

Mifsud, a London-based professor and former Maltese diplomat, has long been suspected of deep ties to Russian intelligence.

He is an elusive figure who has stayed out of the spotlight and is the subject of a letter Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee ranking member, sent to U.S. intelligence agencies and the State Department on Friday seeking relevant documents.

They can't even tell us who Joseph Mifsud is," he said. "We believe he has ties to the State Department."

He noted how in 2017 Mifsud attended an event at the U.S. Capitol hosted by Global Ties U.S., a nonprofit group that partners with the State Department and featured ambassadors and U.S. congressmen at the event.

Nunes' letter also contains photographs of Mifsud in close proximity to Western officials at events hosted by Rome-based Link University Campus, where Mifsud taught.

Although Mueller's team portrayed Mifsud as a Russian asset with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nunes said the team decided to "cherry pick" information from news reports, leaving out that he was described as a Western intelligence asset.

"It seems like Mifsud has an awful lot of ties to U.S., British, and Italian intelligence services," Nunes said.

The FBI spoke with Mifsud in early February 2017, and believe he left the U.S. on Feb. 11.

The FBI accused Papadopoulos of misleading the bureau about his communications with Mifsud in January 2017, which they alleged "undermined investigators’ ability to challenge the Professor [Mifsud] or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States."