Conte Approved Barr Meetings With Italian Intelligence: Corriere

(Bloomberg) -- Italy’s prime minister authorized two secret meetings between U.S. Attorney General William Barr and members of the intelligence agencies in Rome as part of a U.S. investigation into the scandal involving Donald Trump’s possible ties to Russia, according to one of Italy’s leading newspapers.

The meetings focused on the origins of the scandal and the fate of Joseph Mifsud, a Rome-based professor involved in the case, Corriere della Sera said. A Justice Department official on Tuesday said that Barr is reviewing action taken by the U.S. intelligence agencies in 2016 and has met with officials from Italy and Australia.

Barr, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have all been drawn into a House impeachment inquiry after details of the administration’s foreign contacts emerged. Pompeo is on a visit to Rome this week and is expected to speak to reporters alongside Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday.

Corriere reported that Premier Giuseppe Conte gave Barr the green light to meet with Gennaro Vecchione, head of Italy’s Department of Information Security, during a visit in August. The department, which is under the premier’s authority, oversees the internal and external intelligence services.

Vecchione then sought information from the domestic and foreign agencies, particularly about Mifsud and whether the services helped him find a safe haven. The services haven’t known of the professor’s whereabouts since 2017, the newspaper said.

Conte’s and Vecchione’s offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Barr returned to Rome in September and met with the heads of the two intelligence services at Vecchione’s offices along with prosecutor John Durham, who has been commissioned by the attorney general to review the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, the newspaper said.

The U.S. officials renewed a request for any documentation relating to the case. Mifsud is said to have informed Trump’s former campaign manager of the existence of embarrassing emails on Hillary Clinton, Corriere reported.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Follain in Rome at jfollain2@bloomberg.net;Ross Larsen in Rome at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, ;Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten

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