FERRARA, Italy — What was once a conspiracy theory on America’s far-right fringe has developed into a furtive international investigation by the Trump administration and a political headache, and opportunity, for Italy’s bickering leaders.
Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Friday that he was suing a 2016 campaign aide to President Trump for slander because the aide told an Italian right-wing newspaper that Mr. Renzi, while in office, had sought under the orders of President Barack Obama to derail Mr. Trump’s candidacy by planting a spy in a small Roman university.
Those accusations, previously considered the stuff of conspiracies, gained oxygen this month when it was revealed that Attorney General William P. Barr had twice visited Rome to look into them. The Italian news media has reported that Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, whom Mr. Trump has called his “friend,” arranged for Mr. Barr to have secret meetings with the leaders of Italy’s intelligence agencies in August and September.
This has clearly delighted George Papadopoulos, the onetime Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty in October 2017 to lying to the F.B.I. about contacts with people who claimed to be connected to the Kremlin, and who has written a book on the subject.
Mr. Papadopoulos helped trigger the Russia investigation, which was eventually taken over by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and which Mr. Trump has long sought to discredit.
In April 2016, Mr. Papadopoulos learned from Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor then in Rome, that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” Mr. Papadopoulos then spread the tip to an Australian Embassy official in London who notified the American authorities, prompting the investigation that would result in Mr. Mueller’s report.
Mr. Mifsud has been missing for years, and has become the focus of Republican and Fox News theories on the origin of the Mueller investigation. He is also the subject of Mr. Barr’s inquiries in Rome.
Mr. Renzi, who recently started a new political party and is eager for media coverage as he attempts a political comeback, wrote on Facebook that the accusation against him by Mr. Papadopoulos was “seriously damaging to my reputation.” He added, “See you in court.”
That Mr. Mifsud has become a figure of interest in Italy is unexpected.
Earlier this week, Vincenzo Scotti, the president of Link University — itself a subject of intrigue and conspiracies where Mr. Mifsud met Mr. Papadopoulos — said Mr. Mifsud was a delusional “chatterbox” and that the Americans were trying to make something out of nothing by casting him as a man of mystery.
No evidence has shown Mr. Mifsud was working for Western intelligence agencies, and former Italian intelligence officials have doubted that he was. Mr. Mueller’s report said he had connections, instead, to Russia. Nevertheless, an increasing number of Republicans, including President Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, seem to believe that Mr. Mifsud was in fact a spy planted by Mr. Obama.
So does Mr. Papadopoulos.
He told La Verita, a hard-right publication that recently released an anti-migrant comic book featuring a murderous asylum seeker, that the C.I.A. and F.B.I. had used “people like Mifsud” to spy on him and sabotage the Trump presidential campaign.
“I think it was impossible for such an operation to take place without the knowledge of the government of the day. Renzi was taking orders from someone and he was very happy to obey,” Mr. Papadopoulos told La Verita, adding, “I think Matteo Renzi was used by Barack Obama to make this low blow against Trump.”
A spokesman for Mr. Obama could not be immediately reached for comment.
Critics of Mr. Conte, the Italian prime minister, have argued that Mr. Conte has damaged the country’s reputation by directing Italy’s intelligence agencies to aid in Mr. Trump’s investigation. The Italian news service ANSA reported on Friday that he is soon expected to address the parliamentary intelligence oversight body, COPASIR, about the talks between Mr. Barr and top Italian intelligence officials in Rome.
Source : Nytimes
