US trolls EU over fraud scandal

The United States is paying attention to the fraud scandal that has rocked the EU this week.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau used social media to take aim at Federica Mogherini, the former EU top diplomat who is at the center of the corruption scandal.

Retweeting a France 24 story about Mogherini, Landau wrote: “This is the same person, incidentally, who characterized Communist Cuba as a ‘one-party democracy’ and fostered European investment, tourism, and trade that propped up the island’s repressive and stridently anti-American regime.”

The European External Action Service’s 2016 Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World described Cuba’s political system as “a one-party democracy.” Mogherini was head of the EEAS at the time.

Belgian authorities conducted dawn raids on Tuesday and detained Mogherini and ex-EEAS Secretary-General Stefano Sannino as part of an investigation into a tendering process to set up a diplomatic academy attached to the College of Europe, where Mogherini is now rector.

Landau has had Europe in his sights this week. On Wednesday, he slammed European NATO allies for prioritizing their own defense industry over American arms suppliers. Landau told NATO foreign ministers not to “bully” his country’s defense firms out of participating in Europe’s rearmament.