Thread by @benrileysmith

*EXCLUSIVE*

Mysterious professor at heart of the Trump-Russia scandal heard discussing involvement for first time.

Joseph Mifsud says “absolutely” not true he revealed Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. Listen to audio below.

playpodca.st/crossfire

Mifsud was tracked down by the great @rmendick in Oct 2017 when court filings detailed his alleged role.

Audio is being released as part of our new podcast looking into UK angles in the Trump-Russia scandal.

You can listen to episode one here: playpodca.st/crossfire

To remind - Mifsud’s alleged comment was the trigger for the FBI launching their investigation into Russia meddling and the Trump campaign before 2016 election.

He was talking to @GeorgePapa19, a Trump campaign adviser, in London (at a plush 5* hotel called The Andaz)

Here’s what the Mueller Report concluded - that Mifsud told Papadopoulos the Russians had Clinton ‘dirt’ at the meeting.

Critically, this was before Democratic hacked emails were released, upending Clinton’s campaign. So how did Mifsud allegedly know?

Papadopoulos said similar to the Mueller report when @Telegraph interviewed him at his LA home last year.

Said Mifsud told him “they have thousands of Hillary Clinton's emails”. (He interpreted the ‘they’ as Russia).

Papadopoulos: “I was just looking at him thinking, how did you get this information?

“And what I got was 'they told me, they told me'. So no names, no nothing. Just ‘they told me’.”

He likens being given the info to a bomb going off.

Mifsud’s alleged comment made its way to FBI via an Aussie diplomat who heard about it from Papadopoulos (though he contests that).

Mifsud’s whereabouts now is unknown. This is the only known audio of him discussing the meeting.

Full write-up here: telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/1…