Did this central figure in the “Spygate” scandal just CLEAR Trump of Russian “collusion?”
06/01/2018 / By JD Heyes
Like an onion, once we peel back one layer of the stinking Obama scandal involving efforts to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign, there is so much more to reveal.
As reported by The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross, former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer spoke in public for the first time about a barroom conversation he had with a minor foreign policy adviser to the campaign “that would serve as a catalyst for the FBI’s collusion investigation.”
In an interview with The Australian (paywall) April 28, Downer — former high commissioner to the United Kingdom — said he tasked another Australian diplomat with contacting the campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, for the barroom meeting which took place around May 10, 2016, at London’s Kensington Wine Room.
Over drinks, Ross noted, Papadopoulos mentioned that Russia had information on Hillary Clinton that could be damaging to her.
But there was no indication during the short conversation that Trump himself was even aware of that information, Downer told the paper.
“By the way, nothing [Papadopoulos] said in that conversation indicated Trump himself had been conspiring with the Russians to collect information on Hillary Clinton. It was just that this guy, [Papadopoulos], clearly knew that the Russians did have material on Hillary Clinton — but whether Trump knew or not?” Downer explained.
“He didn’t say Trump knew or that Trump was in any way involved in this. He said it was about Russians and Hillary Clinton; it wasn’t about Trump,” Downer told The Australian.
Was he spoonfed the Clinton email lie?
The Trump adviser’s reference to Clinton’s material was also very vague, Downer indicated.
“He didn’t say dirt; he said material that could be damaging to her. No, he said it would be damaging. He didn’t say what it was,” Downer said.
That encounter would later trigger the spying operation that the FBI called “Crossfire Hurricane,” a juvenile reference to a Rolling Stones song from the 1960s, Jumpin’ Jack Flash. (Related: So, who hired Stefan Halper, alleged Trump campaign ‘informant?’)
The Daily Caller noted further:
Downer sent a cable back to Australian government authorities within 48 hours of the Papadopoulos encounter. The information was not provided to the FBI until months later when Joe Hockey, Australia’s ambassador to the U.S., passed it to American authorities in late July 2016. He was prompted to share the information by WikiLeaks’ release of hacked DNC emails.
“Crossfire Hurricane” was officially opened on July 31, 2016. It has since folded into the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“During that conversation, [Papadopoulos] mentioned the Russians might use material that they have on Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election, which may be damaging,” Downer told The Australian.
But how did Papadopoulos, a young campaign operative eager to make his mark, come into the Clinton email information in the first place?
He told the FBI on Jan. 26, 2017, that he had a conversation on April 26, 2016, with Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor, and it was Mifsud who claimed to have been in contact with Russian agents who said they had “dirt” on Clinton that included “thousands” of her supposedly lost emails.
It was a set-up.
Papadopoulos has been indicted by Mueller for lying to FBI agents — a process crime. He pleaded guilty to misleading the bureau about the time of his encounters with Mifsud and a pair of the professor’s Russian associates.
There are some who believe that Papadopoulos was spoonfed the claim that Russians had Hillary’s emails so that he would repeat to others who would then report that back to FBI handlers in order to justify the spying.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has said there was never any intelligence suggesting that Trump or anyone in his campaign may have been undermining the government by in some way “colluding” with Russians — which is the legal standard for launching counterintelligence operations like “Spygate.”
So, why else was it launched? People with a functioning brainstem know the answer.
Read more about Deep State corruption during the Obama era at DeepState.news.
J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.
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Tagged Under: Andrew Downer, Australian diplomat, counterintelligence, deep state, FBI, George Papadopoulos, informants, Joseph Mifsud, Obama Administration, President Donald Trump, Robert Mueller, spies, Spygate, Trump campaign, Witch Hunt
