The Washington Post became the second major mainstream media outlet in two weeks to publish an article on ItalyGate asserting it is a fabrication. An article that appeared on the paper’s website last weekend called the scandal “outlandish.”
The same word was used to describe ItalyGate in a New York Times article published on June 5th.
There has been a significant increase in coverage of ItalyGate from both left- and right-leaning outlets over the past several weeks. The rise in coverage marks a shift in strategy by outlets over the story.
In Trump’s final weeks in office, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, according to newly uncovered emails. https://t.co/0AxJTOHvle
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 5, 2021
ItalyGate allegations say operatives from various global intelligence agencies conspired to hack the U.S. election using satellites operated by Italian defense contractor Leonardo SpA and that those satellites were successfully used to switch votes electronically from President Trump to Joe Biden on Election Day in November.
Reports of the story broke publicly in the U.S. in late December and early January. A small number of articles attempted to “debunk” the scandal at that time but there has been a near-5 month media blackout on the story since. Until this month.
Leading the charge in getting to the bottom of the allegations is Maria Strollo Zack. She and her organization Nations in Action™ have been working to bring the truth about the scandal to light.
“The Washington Post failed to conduct a proper investigation for a publication of that size,” Strollo Zack tells ITN. “They fail to show any signs of interviews with the Italian perpetrators or witnesses.”
Recent media attention on ItalyGate also coincides with reports of suspicious activity on the part of former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
In December Renzi was allegedly captured on cell phone video meeting secretly with a senior member of the Italian secret services, Marco Mancini. Mancini at the time was a high-ranking official at the Security Intelligence Department (DIS), the body responsible for coordinating Italian AISE and AISI, the Italian domestic and foreign intelligence agencies respectively. News of the meeting broke in Italian media last month.
The men met on December 23, 2020 at a highway rest stop – three weeks after allegations of ItalyGate broke and several weeks before Renzi pulled support from Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, precipitating a crisis that resulted in the collapse of Conte’s government.
Strollo Zack announced she received intel that Renzi would pull his support of Contè three weeks prior to Renzi’s announcement and his government would fall. Her intel was “completely accurate,” she says.
Renzi had been challenging Conte’s hold on the county’s secret services portfolio for some time. The divulgence of information protected under the Italian government’s state secret designation could potentially have major implications for the Milan Rendition case as well as, undoubtedly, ItalyGate.
Strollo Zack says she has received intel that confirms the December meeting between Renzi and Mancini was in fact about the breaking of the ItalyGate story.
“That meeting was all about us,” she said.
What happened to Italy Gate? Any new information?