FBI Detains London-Based 'Trump Defender,' Subpoenas Him in Mueller Probe
Ted Malloch, a London-based American academic and close ally of UK Independence Party co-founder Nigel Farage, was detained on Wednesday by the FBI at a Boston, MA airport and issued a subpoena to testify as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
As the Guardian reports, Malloch—a contributor for the conspiracy website InfoWars and self-described “defender of Trump”—said he was detained at Boston’s Logan airport upon arrival from London. Notably, Malloch told the Gateway Pundit he was detained in Cleveland, OH.
In a statement, Malloch said he was asked about his relationship to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, as well as any possible ties to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He told the Guardian the federal agent who detained him “seemed to know everything about me.”
Malloch is described as close to Farage, a staunch Trump supporter who is in turn an ally of former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon. Farage was at the forefront of the UK Brexit push, which whistleblower Christopher Wylie claims was aided by the Bannon-headed data firm Cambridge Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica is under scrutiny in the United States for its role in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Mueller is reportedly examining the Trump campaigns ties to the firm.
Malloch told investigators he only met with Stone three times, and that he’s never visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange has lived in asylum for six years.
In his statement to the Guardian, Malloch claims he was “unfazed and very dubious about why [investigators] thought I knew anything.” The agents confiscated his phone for a “full assessment” and may have read a portion of his not-yet-published book alleging a “deep state” conspiracy against Trump, the Guardian reports.
“I did … find it objectionable to treat me the way they had, as I was entering my home country, where I am a citizen,” Malloch said. “They did not need to use such tactics or intimidation.”
“I was a U.S. patriot and would do anything and everything to assist the government and I had no information that I believed was relevant,” he added.
