“I have to say, if ever there was a case of a fake news, this is it,” Nigel Farage told Fox News. | Getty Brexit leader calls reported involvement in Trump-Russia probe ‘fake news’

Former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage on Thursday dismissed reports that he’s a person of interest in the FBI’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Farage, who stumped for then presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, cast the report as an erroneous attempt to connect him to the Trump team and Moscow, deeming it "fake news" and “total and utter hysterical nonsense.”


“I have to say, if ever there was a case of a fake news, this is it,” Farage told Fox News of a report in British newspaper The Guardian naming him as part of the bureau’s investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

“What they have done is, they tried to join the dots together,” Farage said. “I was involved with Brexit, I was involved with a Trump campaign, and 2016, therefore I must somehow be associated with the Russians.”

Morning Defense newsletter Sign up for Morning Defense, a daily briefing on Washington's national security apparatus. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Farage, who said he simply did not believe The Guardian’s reporting that anonymously cited U.S. officials, downplayed the notion he had any ties to Moscow.

“I've never done business in Russia, I have literally no political connections with Russia whatsoever,” he said.

“The whole thing is a fantasy from people who cannot accept the fact that they lost badly last year,” Farage added, echoing one of President Trump’s frequent talking points.

The British politician — a leading figure in the movement to remove the U.K. from the European Union — also blasted U.S. government officials for leaking information to the media, a point the White House has repeatedly stressed in recent months.

“It's also damaging to accuse people in public, even anonymously, of a reputation-destroying act like collaborating with an authoritarian government such as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's,” he said. “I don't know if we've ever had political witch hunts in Great Britain, but we have here, and this looks like one of them to me.”