Posted on 12/30/2017 9:30:48 AM PST by mojito
During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australias top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign.
Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians role.
The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the F.B.I. to open an investigation in July 2016 into Russias attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of President Trumps associates conspired.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
1) This article is a deep state ploy and spin maneuver - it's a desperate attempt at exonerating the FBI's behavior in obtaining FISA warrants based on the Clinton dossier, because those people know that they are in deep trouble. Anything that appears in the Slimes or Compost at this point is deep state spin to save their behinds;
2) Notice the first date - May 2016 - and remember that Fusion GPS was already at work on the dossier by April;
3) Notice that the first revelations occurred during a "night of heavy drinking";
4) Notice the attempt to portray Papadopolous as an influential figure, when in reality he was an ambitious nobody who liked to talk big and had a tenuous grasp of reality;
5) Remember that nothing that Papadopolous is alleged to have done in this article is illegal, and that he pled guilty to a process crime of lying to the FBI, and was not charged with espionage or other serious felony;
6) Remember that the "dirt' on Hillary Clinton is more likely a reference to her deleted home server emails than it is to refer to info obtained from the alleged DNC "hack."
A couple of days ago, I speculated in a dossier thread that Papadopolous was likely to have been one of Steele's sources, and that hunch, based on this story, seems to have been correct.
I can’t wait for one of these articles that it took six libs to write. They are up to three now.
Bkmk
Same old playbook. IIRC, Joe Wilson, of Plame game, was sitting in a bar talking about “yellowcake”. Something had to fit the narrative and they were running out of options. Looks like the same type ofploy/ruse.
SHARON LaFRANIERE, MARK MAZZETTI and MATT APUZZO. The real question is how many checks have these three cashed from Fusion GPS.
Maybe reflecting on the 550 tons of yellowcake found by Bush Admin soldier in Iraq that was sold to a Canadian Company, after the Army sat on it for several years. Same Yellowcake that Bush & Cheney said was sold to Saddam Hussein, at time of Iraq War vote to help influence Senators.
Yep this is their bs rationale for spying on Trump. They are going to pressure this guy into saying this when it’s probably 90% lies.
Oops.
Whatever happeed to "Snitches get stiches?"
Why did they wait 2 months?
George P clearly looks like a plant sent in to discredit the Trump admin.
Next question?
Check out Article, - and # 1.
Hillary helped the Russians get control of 20% of U.S. uranium. Why would the Russians be trying to undermine her? This whole Trump-Russia collusion story is upside down, and it always has been.
Yes, this is their defense of their actions - "See! Papadopolous made us do it!" - but it's not going to wash for a number of reasons - and notice how the article scrupulously avoids talking about the dossier, except for one mention of Steele.
First, one drunken unpaid junior campaign aide bragging in London doesn't translate into a full blown FBI counterespionage operation. And think about it - if this clown were serious about what he was saying and the people he was allegedly dealing with, would he be drunkenly bragging about it in public to Australian diplomats?
Second, the FBI applied for their first FISA warrant in July 2016, and it was TURNED DOWN. If Papadopolous' actions were enough to justify spying on Trump, then the FISA warrant would have been granted in July, but it wasn't granted until October - when the full Steele dossier had been assembled.
Bump
Because they rightly didn't believe anything this drunken idiot was saying.
Yes, the Russians wanted Trump to win, except those Russians close to Putin who were smearing Trump in Clinton’s paid for dossier.
So, the NY Slimes states that Papadopoulos is a “foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign” (whatever that means).
Based on what evidence? Papadopoulos’ shoes’ price, the number of coffees Papadopoulos has served to Trump staffs?
Inquiring minds would like to know...
thx for heads up
You are pretty much correct. This is all too little too late...too much info is public. The DOJ & the FBI are in deep with no way out. Ugly times are coming. Even the Palmetto princess Miss Lindsey Graham sees the writing on the wall.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.