An Australian diplomat’s tip, and not a ‘dirty dossier’ from a former MI6 spy, appears to have helped persuade the FBI to investigate Russian meddling in the US election.
Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told the diplomat, Alexander Downer, during a night of heavy drinking in London in May 2016 that Russia had thousands of emails incriminating Hillary Clinton, according to The New York Times.
Downer serves as the Australian high commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Australia passed that on to the FBI.
In May 2016, Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos reportedly told an Australian diplomat in London that Russia compiled dirt on Hillary Clinton
Papadopoulos was reportedly drunk when he made the revelation to Alexander Downer (right), Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
The Times says the revelation that a Trump campaign member may have had inside information about the hacking of Democratic emails helped to spark the Russia probe.
Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is a cooperating witness.
Court documents show he met in April 2016 with Joseph Mifsud, a professor in London who told him about Russia’s cache of Clinton emails.
The Times says Papadopoulos shared this information with Downer.
It is unclear exactly what Papadopoulos told Downer.
Two months after the conversation, it was learned that hacked emails from senior members of the Democratic Party were leaked.
Two months after the meeting, hacked emails from senior Democratic Party officials were leaked online, prompting Australia to notify the US government of the Papadopoulos-Downer conversation. Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Hillary Clinton (right) are seen above
That was when Australia informed the FBI about the Papadopoulos-Downer conversation.
The Times report portrays Papadopoulos as a brash and ambitious campaign aide who was in way over his head.
Contrary to attempts by the Trump administration to downplay his role by saying he was just a ‘coffee boy,’ the Times says it obtained documents and other information which indicated that Papadopoulos was quite influential throughout the campaign.
It was Papadopoulos who arranged a meeting between Trump and the Egyptian president, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, in New York before the election.
According to the Times, when Papadopoulos interviewed for a job with the Trump campaign, he was told by a top aide at the time, Sam Clovis (above), that one of Trump’s top foreign policy goals was improving ties to Russia
The Times report, if accurate, debunks a claim made by the Trump administration and its supporters who say the FBI probe and the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller were ignited by a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
The dossier contained sensational charges that the Russian Federal Security Service had ‘kompromat,’ or compromising information, on Trump that could be used to blackmail him.
Some claims in the dossier, particularly salacious details about Trump’s private life, have yet to be verified.
Steele compiled the document for Fusion GPS, a firm hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to provide opposition research on Trump.
According to the Times, when Papadopoulos interviewed for a job with the Trump campaign, he was told by a top aide at the time, Sam Clovis, that one of Trump’s top foreign policy goals was improving ties to Russia.
Court documents show Papadopoulos met in April 2016 with Joseph Mifsud (above), a professor in London who told him about Russia’s cache of Clinton emails. The Times says Papadopoulos shared this information with Downer
Clovis has denied this assertion.
After he was hired, Papadopoulos met with Mifsud, an academic with extensive contact with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
When Mifsud learned that Papadopoulos was working for the Trump campaign, both men agreed to try and arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mifsud put Papadopoulos in touch with Ivan Timofeev, a senior Russian academic believed to have close ties to Putin.
Papadopoulos then told Trump and his senior aides in the campaign that he had the contacts to set up a meeting between the then-candidate and Putin.
One of those aides was Jeff Sessions, the current attorney general. Sessions at the time was running the campaign’s foreign policy team.
The Times report, if accurate, debunks a claim made by the Trump administration and its supporters who say the FBI probe and the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller (right) were ignited by a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele (left)
Initially, Sessions said he did not remember the meeting with Papadopoulos and the other aides.
But he subsequently told Congress that he did not agree to have someone as inexperienced as Papadopoulos at the helm of a sensitive issue like relations with Russia.
While Trump’s allies said Papadopoulos had a minor role, documents show that he continued to exert influence over the course of the campaign.
He is now a focus of Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
Mueller’s office unsealed a guilty plea that Papadopoulos admitted lying to the FBI about contacts that led to Moscow.