FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte holds a news conference at the end of the European Union leaders summit dominated by Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium October 18, 2019. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
October 23, 2019
ROME (Reuters) – Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday confirmed that U.S. Attorney General William Barr held two secret meetings with Italian intelligence officers in Rome and described the encounters as “legal and correct.”
The meetings, which took place in August and September, have been widely reported as being part of an investigation by President Donald Trump’s administration into the origins of the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 American election.
However, Conte told reporters said they had established that Italian intelligence had no information on the matter and was not involved in the investigation.
“The meetings were full legal, correct and didn’t remotely harm our national interests,” Conte said.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Gavin Jones)
