RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
May 27 to June 2
Featured Investigation
Joseph Mifsud is the phantom linchpin of the Trump-Russia probe. The Department of Justice claims it launched the inquiry only after it learned that the Maltese professor had told Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos that Russians possessed material that could be damaging to Hillary Clinton. Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence claim Mifsud acquired this knowledge because he was working for the Russians. Soon after he was publicly identified, Mifsud disappeared, prompting more speculation about his alleged shadowy ties and his fate.
But as Lee Smith reports for Real Clear Investigations, there is no public evidence to support the nefarious claims against him:
Although Mifsud has traveled many times to Russia and has contacts with Russian academics, his closest public ties are to Western governments, politicians, and institutions, including the CIA, FBI and British intelligence services. One of Mifsud’s jobs has been to train diplomats, police officers, and intelligence officers at schools in London and Rome, where he lived and worked over the last dozen years.
In a detailed examination of Mifsud’s connections – which draws on a new book by Mifsud’s associates who say he is alive and in hiding – Smith details Mifsud’s high-level contacts in the West and asks: If Mifsud is a Russian agent, why isn’t anybody acting like it?
If Mifsud truly is a Russian agent – which is key to the collusion narrative – he could prove to be one of the most promiscuous spies in modern history. Western intelligence agencies and European politicians would have to spend the next few decades repairing the damage he did to global security by infiltrating key institutions and personnel. As of yet, however, there is no indication that any intelligence service has begun the embarrassing, but highly important, assessment of how it was penetrated and how it can re-fortify the vulnerabilities that Mifsud may have exposed. There has been no public effort to arrest him.
At the end of this piece Smith observes that like so many other key aspects of Russiagate, Mifsud’s role remains unclear:
Maybe he was more like a “cat’s paw,” a person used by someone else to carry out a job for ends and results of which he was unaware. Mifsud’s role then was to pass information, or simply take meetings, that would dirty Papadopoulos.
Or the Maltese professor truly is a Russian spy. … Or he might just be a man who wanted to seem important by repeating a rumor he’d heard to another man who also wanted to seem important. It’s still unclear who may have put him in the middle of a political scandal and for what purposes.
The Trump Investigations: Top Articles
Mueller's Investigation Looks Like a Series of Bank Shots, Washington Examiner
Trump Aide Clovis: FBI Plant Used Me to Get to Papadopoulos, Washington Examiner
Trump-Sessions Rift Is Obstruction Focus, New York Times
Grassley: GPS Boss Gave 'Extremely Misleading' Testimony, Daily Caller
McCabe Memo on Comey Firing Adds to Obstruction Case, New York Times
The Curious Case of Mr. Downer, Wall Street Journal
As FBI Source, Halper Is Said to Have Had Media Contacts, Daily Caller
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
U.N. Knew About Sex-for-Food Scandal Involving Top Charities
Daily Mail
The United Nations knew of charity workers offering refugees food in exchange for sexual favors for more than a decade. An 84-page report on 'food-for-sex' practices in West African refugee camps was compiled and handed over to the U.N. in 2002, but was never published. It claims that workers at more than 40 aid organizations, of which 15 are major international charities including Save the Children and Médecins Sans Frontières, sexually exploited young refugees.
Equestrian Coach Minted Olympians, Molested Children
New York Times
Jimmy V. Williams is one of the most revered trainers in the history of show jumping. He was also a pedophile. Interviews with 38 former students, trainers, grooms, equestrian officials and members of the Flintridge Riding Club in California reveal a rarefied social scene in which Williams groped and kissed young girls publicly and with impunity — though few knew the true extent of the abuse. They describe a toxic brew of prestige and ambition that led parents, bent on their child’s success in the show ring, to ignore his near daily predations — and persuaded children who were afraid of losing beloved horses to stay silent.
Pro-Trump Effort in '16 to Divert Black Voters
Bloomberg
One key to Trump’s 2016 victory was that he garnered a higher-than-expected share of black voters, while Clinton won significantly fewer than Obama did four years earlier. This article focuses on the efforts of Bruce Carter, a black former Bernie Sanders supporter who turned his support to Trump. It notes that the areas of the key swing states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida where Carter his focused his efforts – aimed at convincing African-American voters to back Trump or not vote at all – produced results that may have turned the election.
Triple Jeopardy in College Rape Case Ends NFL Career
New York Times
Colin Kapernick may believe no NFL team will sign him because of his refusal to stand for the National Anthem, but Keith Mumphrey knows the NFL’s Houston Texans cut him in 20017 because he was viewed as a rapist. The label stems from a 2015 incident at Michigan State University, where a fellow student claimed they had drunken, non-consensual sex. Mumphrey was cleared by police and then by the school’s Title IX office. Unbeknownst to Mumphrey, the woman appealed and, without his participation, MSU found him responsible for relationship violence and sexual misconduct. He is now suing the school.
How Coke Spun the Public on Its Water Use
The Investigative Fund/Verge
More evidence that no good deed goes unpunished. A decade ago, Coca-Cola pledged to become a “water neutral,” adopting the tagline, “for every drop we use, we give one back.” Instead of reducing its use of water, the company invested in offsets – the liquid equivalent of those who contribute to forests to offset their carbon use. But Coke is under fire because its efforts addressed the water it directly used. Most of the water used for its beverages, however, is not in the bottle but in the ground, used to grow the sugar and other ingredients. A half-liter bottle of Coke, for example, actually takes 35 liters of water to produce. In the realm of problems, offsetting that is the real thing.
$670 a Day to Make Unaccompanied Alien Kids 'Comfortable'
Washington Times
The image of two illegal immigrant children sleeping on the floor in a chain-link fence “cage” swept the internet last weekend, sparking misdirected anger from activists who blamed President Trump for the conditions — which were actually from 2014, when the photo was taken, under President Obama. Here is another image: illegal immigrant children set up in comfy dormitories, coloring with “multicultural crayons,” watching their favorite soccer teams from back home on the extensive cable system, even kicking the ball around themselves on a beautiful new soccer field — all paid for by taxpayers. Both images are accurate: two distinct snapshots of different parts of the massive U.S. immigration system that handles hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied alien children, or UAC, who have streamed over the border over the past five years.
He's Got $1 Million in Student Loans. How'd That Happen?
Wall Street Journal
Millions of Americans owe student debt – then there’s Mike Meru. The 37-year-oild orthodontist owes more than $1 million. Instead of doing all he can to pay off the debt Meru, who earned $225,000 last year, pays just $1,589.97 per month, which doesn’t even cover the interest. In two decades he is expected to owe $2 million. While the typical student borrower owes $17,000, the number of those who owe at least $100,000 has risen to around 2.5 million, nearly 6% of the borrowing pool, Education Department data show.
Easily Smuggled Chinese Fentanyl and New Era of Drug Lords
Bloomberg
A common but questionable traffic stop in Mississippi – the officer suspected a woman’s car windows were tinted too darkly – has led to the indictment of the Chinese man federal prosecutors claim has helped flood the U.S. with fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. This article unspools that connection while detailing how the drug is brought to America and sold – with the presumably unwitting help of UPS, PayPal and major credit cards -- along with the profits and deaths it generates.
Lottery Winners' Neighbors More Likely to Spend, Go Bankrupt
Bloomberg
More proof that it’s not a good idea to try to keep up with the Joneses: Close neighbors of lottery winners in Canada tended to spend more on conspicuous goods, put more money into speculative investments such as  stocks, borrow more money—and eventually declare bankruptcy. A working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reports that “the larger the dollar magnitude of a lottery prize of one individual in a very small neighborhood, the more subsequent bankruptcies there will be from other individuals in that neighborhood.”
