Mueller reportedly seeking more info on Farage
Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking more information about former UKIP leader Nigel Farage for his investigation into Russian interference in US politics, the Guardian reported, citing a target of the inquiry who expects to be criminally charged.
The report cited Jerome Corsi, a conservative author, as saying prosecutors working for Mueller questioned him about Farage two weeks ago in Washington.
Corsi said investigators for the special counsel also pressed him for information on Ted Malloch, a London-based American academic with ties to Farage, who informally advised Donald Trump and was interviewed by FBI agents earlier this year.
“They asked about both Nigel and Ted Malloch, I can affirm that they did,” Corsi told the newspaper. “But I’m really not going into detail because I respect the special counsel and the legal process.”
Farage was the key campaigner behind Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Mueller’s interest in the hard-right politician comes amid questions in the UK about whether Russia attempted to influence the June 2016 vote to leave the EU, and Brexit’s most vocal political supporters.
A spokesman for Farage told the Guardian: “This is ill-informed, intentionally malicious gossip and wholly untrue.”
Malloch’s publisher, Nick Magliato, said Malloch’s lawyer instructed the academic, who is in London, not to comment.
Corsi and several other conservative operatives in the US have been under investigation by Mueller for months in relation to the theft of Democratic party emails in 2016 by Russian hackers, which disrupted Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Farage has consistently denied any involvement with Russia and has mocked reports that he was facing legal scrutiny.
Asked if the questions on Farage related to Trump’s 2016 election campaign or that year’s referendum on the UK leaving the EU, Corsi said on Tuesday: “Predominantly US politics, but of course Brexit was in the background.”