Updated 5/18/21 at 1210pm
Italian officials have opened an investigation into a meeting between former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the head of the Italian secret services that took place in December. The meeting, which took place at a highway rest stop, lasted 40 minutes.
Highly unusual is the meeting between a former Prime Minister and senior Italian secret services official Marco Mancini. Mancini is an executive at the Security Intelligence Department (DIS), the body responsible for coordinating Italian AISE and AIS, the Italian domestic and foreign intelligence agencies respectively.
It would be akin to former President George W. Bush secretly meeting with a senior member of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence at a highway rest stop for 40 minutes.
The date of the meeting is also notable: December 23, 2020.
In the weeks following Election Day – November 3 – reports emerged from Italy that officers from various global intelligence agencies helped manipulate the U.S. election using satellites owned and operated by Italian defense contractor Leonardo SpA. On December 1, stories of ItalyGate as it would become known broke in Italian media.
Shortly thereafter, ItalyGate whistleblower Arturo D’Elia was arrested and accused of hacking the IT system of the company he was working as a contractor for – Leonardo.
Renzi has long agitated for a delegation of the powers of the intelligence services away from the Prime Minister’s office. Under the Italian system of government the PM has broad control over the secret services, including what can remain confidential by receiving a “state secret” designation.
When Renzi was Prime Minister (from 2014 to 2016) he lobbied to put an ally of his, known to have strong ties with cybersecurity companies and Israeli Mossad into that position. Leaders of secret services stood in the way of that appointment.
Also troubling is that Renzi said he has met with many senior intelligence officers after leaving office.
“Marco Mancini is one of the leaders of the secret services with whom I had confidential meetings. I think I also saw it at the Autogrill…If you refer to the fact that I met him in December at the Autogrill, absolutely yes, I met him here,” Renzi is quoted as saying. “I met many other managers.”
Renzi is accused of playing a major role in many of the scandals affecting U.S. politics to emerge from Italy: ItalyGate, the Milan Rendition and SpyGate. He pulled support for Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in January, resulting in the collapse of Conte’s coalition government.
Renzi had been fighting to have control of the secret service pulled from Conte for months.
A previous version of this article incorrectly reflected Italian media reports that Marco Mancini is the head of Italian DIS. Mancini is a senior official at DIS though not its chief official.