The FBI has admitted that former UKIP leader Nigel Farage is a “person of interest” in their ongoing investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion.
Farage has dismissed his involvement in the investigation as “completely baloney,” slamming the FBI for wasting time on “hysterical nonsense”.
According to FBI sources, Farage became a person of interest due to his links to Donald Trump and Julian Assange.
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Telegraph.co.uk reports: Mr Farage told The Telegraph he was “laughing” about the allegations and blamed The Guardian for running the story because “they cannot accept Brexit, they cannot accept Trump”.
He added: “I never been to Russia, I have never had any business dealings in Russia. Much of the world I have – but I never did Russian business even when I was in commodities.
“I have no Russian links or connections of any kind at all. And the idea that I can be a ‘person of interest’ is frankly laughable.”
“Persons of interest” are those thought to have information that may help the FBI with their inquiries.
“One of the things the intelligence investigators have been looking at is points of contact and persons involved,” one source told the Guardian.
“He’s right in the middle of these relationships. He turns up over and over again. There’s a lot of attention being paid to him.”
Mr Farage recently met with Mr Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Wikileaks founder lives in exile, but insisted he did so for “purely journalistic reasons.”
In the past, Mr Farage has praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin for his shrewd and ruthless approach to politics.
He has also blamed the European Union for the war in eastern Ukraine, which began when Russian troops annexed Crimea and backed an insurgency in the east of the country in 2014.
In September it emerged that he was offered his own programme on the Russian state broadcaster Russia Today.
Mr Farage added that the FBI had not been in touch “and nor will they be” and suggested the reports were motivated by the fact that he is “an ally of Trump”.
On meeting the WikiLeaks founder, Mr Farage said: “I did go and meet Julian Assange – and yes I am a long term opponent of the European Arrest Warrant. But I met Julian Assange at a meeting that was organised by a broadcaster.
“I did not organise the meeting it was brokered by LBC.”
