US Ambassador to Athens. Geoffrey Pyayy has told main opposition leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, that there is no FBI investigation on Greek politicians. During a meeting on Monday, when the two men discussed about the Novartis bribery case, Ambassador Pyatt was quoted as “The FBI investigation is focusing on crimes violating US Laws. There is no FBI investigation regarding Greek politicians.”
Pyatt said this apparently in the sense that the FBI has no jurisdiction to investigate Greek politicians unless they have violated US law.
But New Democracy whose several former ministers are allegedly involved in the case started to cheered about Pyatt’s statement.
Some media close to ND reported “Pyatt indicated that reports according to which Greek politicians were named by the FBI were false.” And all media described Pyatt’s statement as “a bombshell.”
Was the corruption prosecutor who sent the Novartis case file to the Parliament totally wrong?
Politics is playing with words and interpretations anyway.
Greece’s main opposition party tried to take advantage from the fact that the FBI does not investigate on Greek politicians and shed doubt about the involvement of Greek politicians.
But: does an ambassador have the right to intervene or make revelations about ongoing investigations both in Greece and the US?
Hardly.
As if the confusion was not enough Payatt Re-Tweeted Greek media reports that he had made these revelations.
Πάιατ σε Μητσοτάκη για Novartis: καμία έρευνα του FBI που να αφορά πολιτικούς https://t.co/jPkJjQ46cl via @AntennaNews @kmitsotakis @USAmbGreece @KateSmithFCO
— Antenna News (@AntennaNews) February 26, 2018
This RT sparked a new dispute between the Prime Minister’s office and New Democracy.
In the end, the diplomatic advisor to Alexis Tsipras contacted the US Ambassador for clarifications.
Following the conversation, the PM’s office let the media know that Pyatt “dismissed the news” assuring that “he never referred to whether there were Greek politicians mentioned in the FBI investigation” when he talked with Mitsotakis.
So far, i.e. by 9:30 pm Monday, the Us Ambassador stayed away from touching the keyboard of his pc, tablet, iphone, or laptop, and confirm or deny, tweet or RT or even delete his RTs.
He most likely contemplates about how difficult life is in Greece where nothing remains secret under the Attica sun especially when it comes to political opponents. he very possibly is gazing at a painting with happy flowers thinking that one has to think once, twice, a 100-times before he speaks out “A” when there can be 1000+1 interpretations in this damn’d landscape of Greek politics.
He may also considering to add on his Twitter account the No 1 Rule on Twitter “RTs are not endorsement.”
Note: the name of ex Health Minister – now Maritime Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis – was allegedly mentioned in the FBI report.
And the US accuses other nations of meddling in its politics? The high point of hypocrisy. Greeks should not let this pernicious “diplomat” repeat what he did in Ukraine.