London-based academic Ted Malloch has come under scrutiny by Russiagate investigators for his appearances on RT, the Guardian reports. Malloch denies the claim.
Ted Malloch, who was briefly touted as the next US ambassador to the EU, has been a guest on several episodes of RT’s ‘Going Underground’ with Afshin Rattansi talking Brexit, the allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and the ensuing mainstream media fuss, the US trade war with China, and other topics.
These appearances have now become a subject of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose long-running probe has struggled to come up with “hard evidence” of links between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, the Guardian reported on Friday.
Citing Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist and conservative pundit, the newspaper reported that Malloch has been grilled about his appearances on RT, which, according to the logic of the US investigators, are self-incriminatory.
“They thought maybe he was coordinating with Russia – and RT is Russia,” Corsi, a friend of Malloch, said.
Malloch’s first appearances on Rattansi’s show date back to February 2017, three months after the 2016 election, a fact that apparently did not put investigators off.
While Malloch has denied any links to Russia, the Guardian has found “evidence” – a question from Malloch to Rattansi that if the US lifted its sanctions on Moscow, “would not the world be a better place?”
If the Mueller team has taken up the task of perusing through RT broadcasts, it might also want to question former Clinton presidential campaign advisor Richard Goodstein, who has recently given RT his insight on the US midterm elections.
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Malloch actually anticipated that he might fall victim to the Russia hysteria, telling Rattansi in April that he might be “in deep trouble for even going on Russian TV.”
“But I think this is really the wrong view, both of Russia and the world, so we really need to find ways to undo that and go back to a different place,” he said at the time.
It is believed that Malloch first came under Mueller’s radar back in March, when he was detained and interrogated by the FBI about his links to Republican strategist Roger Stone at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Mueller has been investigating how WikiLeaks managed to obtain emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair. Mueller believes that Corsi tipped off Stone months before WikiLeaks dumped the emails, recently released documents have revealed.
Also on rt.com ‘Is reality just copying from television?’ – Trump’s EU envoy pick to RTMalloch was issued a subpoena to appear before a grand jury in Washington following the arrest, but the hearing was delayed and it’s unclear if it has ever taken place.
At the time, Malloch said that he only worked for the Trump campaign in an informal capacity, did not meet with Stone alone, and has never visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in his London embassy exile.
Last week, Corsi filed a formal complaint against the Justice Department accusing the Mueller team of trying to force him to admit that he lied to investigators about the messages he sent to Stone.