Donald Trump manages to hit the headlines day in, day out. In the past few days he has managed to irk a wide spectrum of global society. First, it was his most humble assertion that he is a very “stable genius”. This was followed by his disparaging remark about El Salvador, Haiti and African nationals. Then it was the jolly threesome allegation, involving the ravishing porn stars Alana Evans, Stormey Daniels and the most powerful politician in the world.
Whatever he says or does, the American President certainly manages to capture world-wide attention.
Ironically, however, what could actually cause his downfall are not his empty boasts, neither his racist comments nor his sexual escapades. It could simply be a normal-looking Maltese citizen.
Robert Mueller is the special counsel appointed by the US Justice Department to investigate Trump’s campaign team’s possible connections with Russia.
Mueller is looking nobody in the face, President or no President. And his investigations have revealed that this whole Russiagate issue arose less than two years ago when George Papadopoulos, after having been named by Trump a foreign policy adviser, was contacted by the Maltese national professor Joseph Mifsud, who boasted that he knew about thousands of Hilary Clinton emails in possession of the Russian authorities.
According to the New York Times, he even “proposed to Papadopoulos that he, too, serve as a campaign surrogate. He could write op-eds under the guise of a ‘neutral’ observer… and follow Trump to his rallies as an accredited journalist while receiving briefings from inside the campaign”.
I knew something was wrong from the first day I arrived there... it all felt very artificial
Mifsud has been connected with various university institutions and think-tanks in Rome, Sochi, Stirling and London, yet nobody seems to know who granted him a professorship.
Following the outbreak of the Russia emails scandal, most of the institutions he was associated with have deleted his profile from their websites.
At Malta University, Mifsud was a senior lecturer, formally director of International and EU Affairs, but he actually spent more time networking abroad than in Malta.
In the 1996-98 period, he had managed to wangle for himself a consultancy position with Education Minister Evarist Bartolo. Then, in 2006, he joined Minister Michael Frendo’s secretariat, without even informing the University, to help him out by canvassing for his unfortunately failed bid to become Secretary General of the Commonwealth.
His much vaunted networking skills did not serve Frendo any purpose.
Not content with having switched from BartoloPL in 1996 to FrendoPN in 2006, Mifsud reappears on the Maltese scene in 2013 as a Muscat-Bartolo Tagħnalkoller, this time in the shoes of an INTO University Partnerships consultant, with a view to developing a university campus in Malta and a medical school in Gozo.
Barts and the whole Vitals-Steward shady deal could possibly actually be the result of MifsudTagħnaLkoll’s original proposal.
Whatever, Mueller is continuing with his investigations on the Trump-Russia Affair.
A few weeks ago he called to testify Papadopoulos’s Italian fiancée Simona Mangiante. Both she and Papadopoulos had spent some time working for Mifsud.
According to Mangiante, who spoke to the Business Insider, “I knew something was wrong from the first day I arrived there.”
Mangiante added: “It all felt very artificial. I had worked in real diplomatic environments and this didn’t feel that way at all. I never even had clarity about who [Mifsud] actually was.”
Mueller continues to investigate.
After having worked for Bartolo, duped Frendo into believing he would get him elected and glued himself to Muscat’s movement, will the mysterious Mifsud be the cause of President Trump’s downfall?
Time will tell.
Arnold Cassola is former Alternattiva Demokratika chairman and former secretary general of the European Green Party.