No, I don't.
But I know Papadopoulous plead guilty so I don't see much reason to give him the benefit of the doubt.
If he was innocent and he plead guilty - well, frankly that alone would make him a liar.
One way or the other, I can't see any good reason to trust his word on anything.
You know the thing about this conspiracy theory - what it is likely to achieve in the end if anything is driving a wedge between the United States and some of its closest allies.
I wonder whose interest that is in?
Just today on Freerepublic, I've seen Freepers attacking not just Alexander Downer in Australia, but Boris Johnson in the UK for alleged involvement in this 'plot'. These men are, to be frank, some of the United State's government best friends in allied countries - and they are being attacked based on this conspiracy nonsense.
If I was of a conspiratorial frame of mind, I'd be asking who gains from that.
Your intelligence services and ours have done a lot of terrible things throughout history. I love your Australians shows. One thing is common amongst the shows and why I like them so much is your distrust in our government and your government to do the right thing.
Australians have as little faith in their government’s actions and secrets as we do here in America. With all the information out now, a group of government intelligence officials in the United States attempted a coup and failing that tried to take down a sitting President. Is it stretch that they manipulated foreign officials to be able to spy on Americans on foreign soil. No.
But I know Papadopoulous plead guilty so I don’t see much reason to give him the benefit of the doubt.
If he was innocent and he plead guilty - well, frankly that alone would make him a liar.
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I know, it looks bad for those outside, but in this country people are forced to plead guilty to avoid bankruptcy and long prison sentences on trumped up charges. This is normal in the US. The judiciary is used as a weapon. We are about four steps from the USSR with the rot in the judiciary. We live in fear. Seriously.
Read a bit on Mark Steyn and his legal issues as he attempts to find justice in the American Judicial system. Conrad Black is another. I see this all the time locally too.
Let me give you an example: person I know was out with friends in another state. Fight broke out in the bar, a large venue. The police came in and arrested everyone in the bar. All were charged. Many pled to avoid costs of defense, and paid fines (shake down). Person I knew was licensed in this state, and would lose license if there was a smirch on his record. Costs to fight the case ran into the 15K range. To defend self against a corrupt judiciary.
This kind of thing happens regularly. On the federal side it is worse. They pull 15 to 30 charges against someone and threaten life imprisonment. They drop all charges except 2 or 3 and the grateful shlub pleads and thinks jail or probation is a good deal, EVEN WHEN INNOCENT.