Nigel Farage has been thrust into the Donald Trump Russia scandal after he was accused of secretly handing data to Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder.

The former Ukip leader is alleged to have repeatedly met the elusive hacker in the Ecuadorian embassy and delivered him a "thumb drive" of information.

The claim is controversial because Wikileaks published Democratic Party emails during the election that were suspected of coming from Russian hackers.

It is unclear when the trips are alleged to have taken place but it appears the claim includes suggestions some visits happened before the 2016 vote.

The allegation came from the man who commissioned a dossier of lurid allegations about Mr Trump. He admitted the claim had not been not corroborated.

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London credit: REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Mr Farage, a prominent Trump supporter, rebutted the suggestion, telling The Telegraph: “It is yet more conspiratorial nonsense.”

It came to light when testimony given behind closed doors to a congressional committee was published.

Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of GPS Fusion, was paid to find dirt on Mr Trump before the election and was interviewed by the House intelligence committee.



An American flag flies outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC credit: Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg

He was asked whether he had found any connection between the Trump campaign and Wikileaks.

Mr Simpson said: "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."

He later added: "I've been told and have not confirmed that Nigel Farage had additional trips to the Ecuadoran Embassy than the one that's been in the papers and that he provided data to Julian Assange."

Pushed on what type of data, Mr Simpson said: "A thumb drive."

The suggestion that Mr Farage was secretly passing data to the group that published hacked Democratic emails before the US election - to the benefit of Mr Trump - has caused controversy.

Wikileaks has been accused of getting the Democratic emails from Russian cyber-hackers - a claim that lies at the heart of the election meddling investigation.

Mr Farage was spotted visiting Mr Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he lives and claims immunity, in March 2017. He declined to explain why he made that trip at the time.

Ukip has a history of supporting Mr Assange, including fighting a European arrest warrant issued against him, according to emails revealed last year.

Mr Simpson's firm tasked ex-British spy Christopher Steele to look at Mr Trump's Russia links, which led to a now infamous dossier of lurid claims about the president.