A close friend and adviser to the professor who told former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos that the Russians had thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails is pushing back on a theory that the professor is dead.
Lawyers for the Democratic National Committee said in a court filing Friday that Russian-linked professor Joseph Mifsud “may be deceased,” without offering any explanation as to why they think so. The DNC is suing WikiLeaks, the Trump campaign, and Russia for interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A Swiss-German lawyer described as a close friend and adviser to Mifsud told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the claim is “nonsense.”
“I’m in a better mood today. I got it from really good sources. They say that he is alive, that he has another identity, and that he is staying somewhere, at a nice place,” Stephan Roh said.
“I just this morning got a message, indirectly, that he is alive and that they have provided him with another identity,” he added.
He did not disclose his sources to the DCNF.
Mifsud met with Papadopoulos, who last week was sentenced to two weeks in prison for lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, in London during the presidential campaign. The professor claimed the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of her emails.
Months later, WikiLeaks released emails stolen from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta and other Democratic officials. An indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller alleges Russia stole the emails and gave them to WikiLeaks, who released them in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
Federal prosecutors said in a court filing in August that Papadopoulos’ lies to the FBI about his contacts with Russians prevented authorities from potentially arresting Mifsud before he left the U.S.
Investigators had located Mifsud in Washington, D.C., two weeks after Papadopoulos had been interviewed by the FBI in January 2017, the filing said. Mifsud left the U.S. on Feb. 11, 2017, and has not returned.
