Mystery Russian woman and Kremlin-connected professor at centre of White House bombshell

A MYSTERIOUS figure at the heart of new allegations about the Trump campaign and Russia has been revealed - and he’s surprisingly talkative.

A UNVERSITY professor and a mystery woman were at the heart of a Russian effort to offer the Trump campaign “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, explosive court documents have revealed.

Mr Trump’s former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, believed the woman was the niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to an unsealed document from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Together with a Kremlin-connected UK professor, the woman allegedly offered to help Mr Papadopoulos arrange meetings between Mr Putin and Mr Trump, who was a candidate at the time.

The professor isn’t named in the US court documents, which were unsealed yesterday, along with Mr Papadopoulos’ guilty plea on charges of making false statements to the FBI.

However UK newspaper The Telegraph has revealed he is Professor Joseph Mifsud, honorary director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, which is affiliated with the University of Stirling in Scotland.

Prof Mifsud confirmed he was the London professor described in the document.

He told The Telegraph he was “upset” by the claims he supposedly had regarding dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Prof Mifsud described the suggestion that he had introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian woman, described as a relative of Mr Putin, as a “laughing stock” and said he had a “clear conscience” over the inquiry.

Professor Joseph Mifsud, pictured in 2014, insisted the claims in the court documents are exaggerated. Picture: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS

He also dismissed reports he was a go between for the Trump campaign and key players in the Kremlin.

Prof Mifsud insisted he was just an academic who had “absolutely no contact” with the Russian government, the Washington Post reported.

However private exchanges reveal he was proud of his high-level contacts and even told a former assistant he met with Putin last year.

According to the court papers, the professor took an interest in Mr Padadopolous after he joined the Trump campaign.

Prof Mifsud said the claims in the court documents are exaggerated and insisted he knew nothing about the emails containing “dirt” on Mrs Clinton.

In an August interview with the Washington Post, he said his Russian connections were related to his academic work.

“I am an academic, I do not even speak Russian,” he said in an email response.

EXPLOSIVE PAPERS

Mr Papadopoulos, who was arrested in July, has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his relationships with Russian operatives, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years’ jail and a $250,000 fine.

The court documents showed he had admitted lying to the FBI while it was investigating claims of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Mr Papadopoulos was reportedly also offered an introduction to the Russian ambassador in London and was targeted because he was an adviser to Mr Trump during last year’s presidential election.

This photo posted on President Donald Trump’s Twitter account in March last year shows George Papadopoulos, third from left, at a table with then-candidate Trump and others at what was labelled at a national security meeting in Washington. Picture: AP

On Tuesday, Mr Mueller announced separate charges had been made against Mr Trump’s ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime aide Rick Gates.

However, these did not appear to be directly related to their work for Mr Trump.

Mr Papadopoulos has been thrust into the centre of Mr Mueller’s investigation. He has admitted to facts that connect members of Mr Trump’s campaign team to efforts by Russian intermediaries seeking to interfere in last year’s election, AFP have reported.

The President yesterday insisted there was no collusion with Russia by anyone.

In an angry tweet, he also called on political rival Mrs Clinton to be investigated.

Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017

....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017

HIGH CONNECTIONS
The court documents show that Mr Papadopoulos met with an unnamed foreign professor with “substantial connections” to Russian government officials while he was working on the Trump election campaign.

In April last year, he reported the professor had offered him “dirt” on Mrs Clinton which included “thousands of emails.”

The documents were part of a plea bargain in which Mr Papadopoulos admitted to lying to FBI investigators probing possible collusion between Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian interference in the election.

The plea deal, unveiled yesterday, included a detailed time line of Mr Papadopoulos’ meetings and communications with the Russians after he was named one of five Trump foreign affairs advisers in March 2016.

Mr Papadopoulos confessed he had lied to FBI investigators about his extensive meetings with Russian contacts and his efforts to, in the words of the court document, “arrange a meeting between the Campaign and Russian government officials.”

Paul Manafort (left) leaves Federal District Court in Washington on Monday after pleading not guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

He emailed Trump campaign contacts saying he had met with a female Russian national whom he described as “Putin’s niece,” in an effort to co-ordinate a meeting between the campaign and “Russian leadership.”

PROBLEMATIC PLEA

In a detailed analysis, CNN’s editor-at-large Chris Cillizza said Mr Papadopoulos’ guilty plea was a much bigger problem for Mr Trump than the Manafort indictment.

Mr Manafort and Mr Gates, who were key players during the presidential campaign, have pleaded not guilty to 12 charges including “conspiracy against the United States”, conspiracy to launder money and acting as an “unregistered agent” of the Ukrainian government.

They were also charged with making false and misleading statements to investigators and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

The conspiracy against the US charge alleges that Mr Manfort and Mr Gates defrauded the United States and has nothing to do with collusion with Russia.

Both men entered not guilty pleas on Monday afternoon and were placed under house arrest.

Bail was set at $US10 million ($A13 million) for Mr Manafort and $US5 million ($A6.5 million) for Mr Gates, the Associated Press reported.

Investigators allege the men were part of a secret “scheme” where they acted as foreign agents for a pro-Russian Ukrainian party.

It’s also alleged they hid the $US75 million ($A97.7 million) they were paid and lied to authorities about it.

A woman claimed she could have set up a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Trump during last year’s election campaign. Picture: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AP

According to Cillizza, this latest saga is a huge deal as the “professor only showed interest in Papadopoulos after it became known that he was employed by the Trump campaign.”

Cillizza also questioned why Mr Papadopoulos initially lied to the FBI and whether his interactions with “The Professor” were driven by the promise of “dirt” on Mrs Clinton.

He also highlighted how Mr Papadopoulos had been co-operating with Mr Mueller’s investigation since July.

“What Papadopoulos has already admitted to doing — lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian operatives regarding dirt’ on Trump’s general election opponent — is a very big deal,” Cillizza wrote.

“A bigger deal — in terms of the investigation into Russia’s attempted meddling in the election and allegations of collusion — than the dozen counts laid out in the Manafort indictment.”

‘EVERYTHING JUST GOT WORSE’

According to The Nation’s, National Affairs Correspondent, Joan Walsh, everything just got a whole lot worse for Mr Trump.

While acknowledging the saga wouldn’t necessarily end in impeachment, she wrote it’s not a good look for the President.

Walsah wrote that “at least someone within the campaign knew that the Russians had ‘dirt’ and ‘thousands of emails’ on Clinton a month and a half before the already-shady-seeming June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting.”

Donald Trump Jr released an email chain in July that showed him discussing plans to meet with a Russian lawyer for damaging information on Hillary Clinton ahead of the US presidential election.

He admitted he would have “done things differently” in regard to the meeting with Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016 at Trump Tower but insisted his father knew nothing about it.

— with AFP