Nigel Farage has dismissed claims he passed a data to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in secret meetings at the Ecuadorian embassy as “conspiratorial nonsense”.
The allegations were made on Thursday in sworn testimony by Fusion GPS founder, Glenn Simpson, to the US House Intelligence Committee which is one of several official bodies investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Farage is already known to have visited the Ecuadorian embassy where Assange has been holed up since 2012, when he was spotted leaving in September of last year.
Yesterday Simpson claimed there may have been more, saying: “There was a somewhat unacknowledged relationship between the Trump people and the Ukip people and that the path to Wikileaks ran through that. And I still think that today.”
“I’ve been told and have not confirmed that Nigel Farage had additional trips to the Ecuadorian embassy than the one that’s been in the papers and that he provided data to Julian Assange.”
Asked what kind of data, he replied: “A thumb drive.”
Farage has said it “conspiratorial nonsense” and a spokesperson told the Guardian he has only met Assange on one occasion.
The former Ukip-leader last year also had to deny he could be a “person of interest” to the FBI’s investigation into Donald Trump and Russia because he has “no connections” to the country.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation claimed FBI investigators were interested in Farage due to his relationships with individuals connected to Assange and the Trump campaign.