Nigel Farage - Arrest Soon?

While he avoids the mire now engulfing his old party, former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage remains in the news, but not necessarily for reasons he would find desirable: he has once again been implicated in the Trump-Russia investigation being led by former FBI director Robert Mueller. Farage had already been confirmed as a “person of interest” to the Bureau, as the Guardian reported last June.

Squeaky you can't take the Fifth finger up the bum time

Now has come a development which might never have been chased up - but for the chance sighting earlier last year when an eagle-eyed passer-by saw Farage going in to the Ecuadorian embassy in London’s Knightsbridge district. BuzzFeed were duly tipped off and one of their people was on the doorstep to intercept an evasive Mr Thirsty when he emerged, claiming he couldn’t recall what he’d been doing in there.

Of course, thanks to German newspaper Die Zeit, we all knew soon enough. During an interview in which his campaign progressed not necessarily to his advantage, Nige admitted he had lied about meeting the deputy Russian ambassador, and then he admitted his visit to the Ecuadorian embassy was to visit Julian Assange, with whom he ‘discussed a lot’”. Now we know it wasn’t just about talking - or one meeting.

Talking Points Memo has told “Two foreign allies of President Donald Trump - the face of Brexit and founder of WikiLeaks —-may have had multiple, previously undisclosed meetings during the 2016 presidential campaign. In November testimony to the House Intelligence Committee that was made public Thursday, Glenn Simpson, founder of private intelligence firm Fusion GPS, said he’d heard reports that Brexit leader Nigel Farage provided data to WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange”. And there was more.

“Simpson, whose firm assembled the so-called Trump-Russia dossier, added that the data came in the form of a thumb drive”. Small enough for Nige to have collected it and taken it on board the plane coming back from the USA without any problem. And even though TPM notes “Both Farage and Assange have dismissed the suggestion that they took any action to influence the election results. The former British politician insisted he has ‘no connections to Russia’”, he keeps being highly evasive.

Remember that Farage first claimed he didn’t recall who he saw in the Ecuadorian embassy. Then he admitted he’d seen Assange for “journalistic reasons”. Then he claimed it was a “private meeting”. Then he claimed he met Assange “briefly”, but that they discussed “a lot”. He took along an LBC producer, but LBC has run nothing on the encounter. So it might have been something and nothing. But if Farage continues to be evasive, then questions are going to be asked.

And remember also that the what Glenn Simpson said was back in November. As so often with the Mueller investigation, it’s inevitably months after the event that we find out what has been revealed, and by then the questioning has moved on. But what we do know is that with the authorities being told Nige was passing data to someone considered a Russian asset, the inevitable outcome is that he will be arrested and questioned.

He can then try and evade his way out of that one. Or maybe not.