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Former Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos just tweeted this:

Alexander Downer has made a bizarre, and unfounded, claim and perpetuated a conspiracy theory that the Israelis were the ones who told him to spy on me in London. I think the Israelis would like to clarify this slander to the investigators looking into that clown.

For those who don’t know, Padadopoulos met with a Kremlin-connected Maltese professor named Joseph Mifsud, who told him that the Russian government had dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. Then Papadopoulos met an Australian diplomat named Alexander Downer in a London bar, and told him about what Mifsud had told him. The Australian government then informed the US government about all this, which resulted in the opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, which would later be led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. And Papadopoulos ultimately pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with Mifsud.

But my question is, is Papadopoulos right that Alexander Downer has claimed that the Israelis told him to spy on Papadopoulos in London?

Keshav Srinivasan
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    I can't find anything even close in my searches. I can find Papadopoulos on several occasions making the strange claim that he (Papadopoulos) was targeted because if his support or closeness to Israel. I just read a transcript of his interview with Maria Baritromo which was disturbingly incomprehensible. – President James K. Polk Dec 08 '19 at 04:17
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    @JamesReinstateMonicaPolk Yeah, ever since shortly before he went to prison, Papadopoulos has been peddling conspiracy theories about Mifsud being Western intelligence and this all being a “Deep State” plot to get Trump. Those theories will be debunked in the FISA IG report due tomorrow. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 08 '19 at 14:27
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    A convicted lier is making a statement about someone else statement without providing a source. Questions to his tweet about "when and where" are unanswered. Also Papadopoulos is the one who insist on Downer "spying". While being "played" by Papadopoulos. – SZCZERZO KŁY Dec 09 '19 at 10:45
  • @KeshavSrinivasan Well Misfud was a western intelligence asset, but was let go in 2011. For concern about his allegiances. –  Dec 10 '19 at 15:31
  • @KDog Do you have evidence of that? In any case the George Papadopoulos indictment makes clear that Mifsud was a Kremlin-connected professor. And Durham told the IG that there’s no evidence for Republican conspiracy theories about Mifsud. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 10 '19 at 15:46
  • It was in the Horowitz report. Also that he was dropped by the FBI for cause. That cause being that his allegiances to country were questionable. –  Dec 13 '19 at 20:50
  • Note that was well before the sham investigation and FISA abuse stuff went down. George P. decided to shoot his mouth off at exactly the wrong time. –  Dec 13 '19 at 20:54
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    @KDog I’ve read the IG report, and it has absolutely no mention of Mifsud ever being a US intelligence asset or ever working for the FBI. On the contrary, it says “The FBI's Delta files contain no evidence that Mifsud has ever acted as an FBI CHS [confidential human source]” (page 312). There was an FBI CHS mentioned on page 313 who was let go in 2011 for “questionable allegiances to the targets”, if that’s who you’re referring to, but that is definitely not Mifsud, who as demonstrated in the quote above has never worked as an FBI CHS. The FBI CHS referred to on page 313 is Stefan Halper. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 13 '19 at 21:53
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    @KDog And it wasn’t a sham investigation at all. It was a legitimate investigation prompted by Papadopoulos’ conversation with Mifsud. The IG found that the investigation was properly predicated and that there was no evidence that any political bias motivated the decision to open it. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 13 '19 at 21:54
  • You are right, I got Misfud and Halper confused. But Pap lies about both of them, sorry. –  Dec 13 '19 at 23:07
  • Carter Page loyally served the CIA to spy on the Russians and the FBI used that activity, suppressing that it was on behalf of America, to launch an investigation just so the FBI could spy on the Trump campaign –  Dec 13 '19 at 23:19
  • Cross fire Hurricane, not the OiG report –  Dec 14 '19 at 15:47
  • @KDog What lies did Papadopoulos tell about Mifsud and Halper? Papadopoulos pled guilty to lying to the FBI about Mifsud, i.e. claiming not to know about Mifsud’s deep Kremlin connections when really he did. In any case Carter Page did tell the CIA about his conversations with Russian intelligence officials when they asked him, but there’s no evidence that they sent him to talk to them. And the investigation wasn’t opened because of Carter Page, it was opened because of Papadopoulos meeting with Mifsud. And the IG found that the decision to seek a FISA warrant wasn’t improperly motivated. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 16 '19 at 16:07
  • Paps lied plenty, and still does. It was all about resume padding with him. There is plenty of information that Page was working on behalf of the CIA (or other agency) in his work with the Russians, and that this information was used as primary case for the FISA warrants. Despicable. Even Comey came out yesterday to say Page was treated unfairly. –  Dec 16 '19 at 18:01
  • And the IG in testimony last week: “I think it’s fair for people to sit there and look at all of these 17 events and wonder how it could be purely incompetence.” –  Dec 16 '19 at 18:05
  • “There are significant serious failures here — particularly in connection with FISAs. Whether it was sheer gross incompetence vs. intentional misconduct or anything in between & what the motivations are, I can’t tell you as I sit here today.” Of course this is after 4 FISAs that never produced an iota of actionable criminal activity, not the start, as your improperly motivated text conditions. –  Dec 16 '19 at 18:06
  • @KDog I was responding to your point “the FBI used that activity ... to launch an investigation just so the FBI could spy on the Trump campaign”. Not part of that is true. The IG found that neither the decision to open the Crossfire Hurricane investigation nor the decision to seek FISA warrants on Carter Page were motivated by political bias or other improper considerations. What is true is that there were inaccuracies and omissions in the FISA warrant application. But it is not true that the FBI was trying to spy on the Trump campaign. Carter Page was not even on the campaign anymore. – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 16 '19 at 19:03
  • The FBI absolutely used Page's CIA work as a cover to get the FISA warrant https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/11/kevin-clinesmith-fbi-attorney-hid-carter-page-cia-/ –  Dec 16 '19 at 19:06
  • And if the FBI knew Page was working for the CIA, and they did, why did they need to wiretap him? Because of his work with Trump. It was a backdoor to spying on Trump. –  Dec 16 '19 at 19:08
  • @KDog The FBI sought to get a FISA warrant because it was genuinely concerned that Carter Page was an agent of a foreign power, it wasnt just trying to use that as an excuse to spy on the Trump campaign or anything else. The IG again found that the FBI had no improper motives in its decision to seek a FISA warrant. What is true is that the FBI should have mentioned in the FISA warrant application that Carter Page told the CIA about his interactions with Russian officials when they asked him. But that doesnt mean the FBI did not genuinely suspect Carter Page of being an agent of a foreign power – Keshav Srinivasan Dec 16 '19 at 19:11
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/102263/discussion-between-k-dog-and-keshav-srinivasan). –  Dec 16 '19 at 19:11
  • I'd say the question isn't whether the FBI peddled garbage and some misinformation to get a FISA warrant rubber-stamped. I'd say the question is does this represent some kind of political targeting on their part, or is it simply S.O.P. for a system that is basically built to rubber-stamp intrusions into privacy? If we go back and look at the backup for every FISA request approved to look at a Muslim community organization where the surveillance didn't pan out, does anyone claim those applications wouldn't be similarly filled with trash, upon closer scrutiny? – PoloHoleSet Sep 14 '20 at 19:27
  • @PoloHoleSet Yes, after reviewing the Carter Page FISA application, the IG conducted an audit of FISA warrant applications in general and found similar issues in them. It's just a general issue of the FBI not following the Woods Procedures in filling out FISA warrant applications. – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 14 '20 at 20:04
  • I wasn't aware of a broader review. I'll have to look that up. My point was more based on a long-standing mainstream, liberal and even libertarian complaint that FISA courts were merely a rubber-stamp process to trample privacy rights without concrete and legitimate cause. It's a process rife with abuse as standard process, and not that it was specifically abused with Trump as victim. "Abuse" is how it's set up to work. – PoloHoleSet Sep 15 '20 at 13:45

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