Alexander Downer Exposes FBI's Deceit in Opening Russia Investigation

A few days ago, our friend Stephen McIntyre, one of the original Russiagate investigators, sent a tweet to revisit a question that many of us have pondered for years but which has never been fully resolved. As a result, we finally now have the answer. That is because, in response to McIntyre’s tweet, the key figure has come forward to confirm what many of us have suspected all along.

McIntyre's tweet highlighted that, according to the FBI, it was Australian diplomat Alexander Downer who initiated the inception of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. However, the narratives surrounding this event differ significantly between Downer's account in Special Counsel John Durham’s report and the FBI's version. Downer has now stepped forward to affirm Durham's version with a three-word tweet: “Durham is right”. This development carries substantial implications for the entire Russiagate saga, particularly regarding its fraudulent origins.

Downer’s confirmation represents a significant breakthrough in unraveling the final puzzle pieces of Russiagate, not necessarily because the information is new or surprising, but rather because it confirms that the FBI was aware from the outset that its justification for initiating the Trump-Russia investigation was phony.

The two competing versions of the Crossfire Hurricane origin story can be summarized as follows: According to the FBI, Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos met with Australia’s ambassador in London, Alexander Downer, and Downer’s assistant, Erika Thompson. During this meeting, Papadopoulos is supposed to have “suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion” that Russia might assist the Trump campaign by anonymously releasing damaging information about Hillary Clinton prior to the 2016 election.

Robert Mueller went one step further, claiming that what Papadopoulos had talked about was “that the Russian government had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.”

Downer’s account, as detailed in the Durham report, states, “Papadopoulos made no mention of Clinton emails, dirt or any specific approach by the Russian government to the Trump campaign team with an offer or suggestion of providing assistance. Rather, Downer's recollection was that Papadopoulos simply stated "the Russians have information" and that was all.”

Notably, the day before Papadopoulos met with Downer and Thompson, Andrew Napolitano shared a nearly identical account on Fox News, raising the distinct possibility that Papadopoulos was simply reiterating what he had heard on TV, as opposed to any secret plot. In fact, we would argue that this is almost certainly what occurred: Papadopoulos enthusiastically repeated a story he had encountered on Fox News.

So, how did everything get blown out of proportion? This is where Downer’s confirmation of Durham’s account comes into play and why it is so important.

According to the Durham report, the FBI utilized a cherry-picked portion of a report written by Thompson regarding their meeting with Papadopoulos to justify the initiation of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged collusion between Trump and Russia. Thompson's report, which was a standard post-meeting document, was submitted to the Australian government in Canberra shortly after Thompson and Downer met with Papadopoulos on May 10, 2016.

“[Papadopoulos] commented that the Clintons had "a lot of baggage" and suggested the Trump team had plenty of material to use in its campaign. He also suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist this process with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to Mrs[.] Clinton (and President Obama). It was unclear whether he or the Russians were referring to material acquired publicly of [sic] through other means. It was also unclear how Mr[.] Trump's team reacted to the offer. We note the Trump team's reaction could, in the end, have little bearing of [sic] what Russia decides to do, with or without Mr[.] Trump's cooperation.”

In late July 2016, Downer gave the meeting report, which included the cherry-picked snippet, to the U.S. Embassy in London after hearing Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook on CNN assert that Russia had hacked the DNC to assist Trump. As we later found out, the so-called experts Mook supposedly relied on in making his claim were Clinton campaign operatives, such as Christopher Steele. Although Downer could not have known this, his actions in going to the U.S. Embassy with two-and-a-half-month-old meeting notes were highly unusual. Perhaps he was caught in the moment of widespread hysteria. Or perhaps he was cajoled into doing what he did. Be that as it may, to the extent that he could be criticized for acting prematurely or misunderstanding the situation, he promptly clarified the matter.

The reason for this is that after the FBI initiated its Crossfire Hurricane investigation on July 31, 2016, allegedly based on the snippet from Thompson, FBI chief investigator Peter Strzok and his associate Joe Pientka traveled to London to interview Downer and Thompson regarding their encounter with Papadopoulos. Setting aside the fact that an honest investigator would have waited to speak with the witnesses before launching a comprehensive investigation into a presidential campaign, it is what Downer conveyed to Strzok—now confirmed—that demonstrates the entire investigation was founded on a deliberate misunderstanding, in other words, a lie.

Downer told Strzok that the substance of the snippet that Thompson had drafted was “purposely vague” because “Papadopoulos left a number of things unexplained.” Downer also clarified that Papadopoulos “did not say he had direct contact with the Russians.” Downer further said that “there were reasons to be unsure about what to make of the information from Papadopoulos,” and that he “did not get the sense Papadopoulos was the middle-man to coordinate with the Russians.”

Notably, this is not what Downer later told Durham with the benefit of hindsight, it is what Downer told Strzok at the time.

Downer later informed Durham that he would have characterized the statements made by Papadopoulos differently than Thompson did in the snippet relied on by the FBI. It is unclear to what extent Downer communicated this to Strzok in August 2016, but based on the available information, it should have been evident to Strzok that the snippet should not under any circumstances have been taken at face value.....SNIP

Hi folks, I include a segment from a spreadsheet I put together a few years back, because I was having difficulty keeping up with the events. As revelations came out after the fact and people began talking about RussiaGate, CrossFire Hurricane, and Trump's first "impeachment", I simply could not keep timelines together in my head, and as a result, I could not cogently follow what went on.

To make sense out of it, I put a comprehensive timeline about Flynn's (and others that impacted it) accounts together in a chronological timeline with dates, descriptions of events, people involved, a more detailed description, and where possible, links to documents.

In my IT work that involves investigating errors and mistakes in complicated, integrated IT systems used by many people, I have found over the years that documenting events and actions chronologically in a date-sorted spreadsheet format makes things that might otherwise have been confusing and obscure...obvious.

And so I found it here. In doing this, the government malfeasance become obvious to me, so I thought I would include the entries from the May 10th, 2016 meeting with Erika Thompson and Alexander Downer.

NOTE: I did not include the entire document in this table, only from 5/10/2016 through 8/17/2016, but even still it takes up space in the thread. I apologize in advance if it makes the thread by MtnClimber more difficult to follow.

If any one is interested you can view the entire document at this link, and download it and share it as you see fit. I believe it is an excellent reference source:

LINK: Chronological Timeline of The Weaponization of Government Against General Michael Flynn

(Excerpt of chronological table of dates between 5/10/2016 to 8/17/2016 is shown below)

Date	Person(s)	Event	Notes	Link
	Overview	Introduction and background: How Russiagate Began With Obama’s Iran Deal Domestic Spying Campaign (Tablet article published by Lee Smith on 5/20/2020	Much of what is described in this table below is easier to understand if it is understood why General Michael Flynn was targeted for persecution with political, legal, and personal dismemberment.   This article from Lee Smith explains in detail why General Flynn, a standout in military intelligence innovations and experience as a DNI under the Obama Administration, had to be discredited and removed.  Before perusing this table, I highly suggest reading the Lee Smith article to give perspective to the animus that the Obama Administration and the Intelligence community had towards General Michael Flynn, and why they took the actions they did to destroy him.   This table largely only goes up to the day General Flynn was fired, but there are key revelations after that date that I have included which bear directly on the process to frame General Flynn. I have not included any of the governmental or judicial processes taken against General Flynn.   In light of what is displayed in this table, the actions taken by the court and DOJ team against him are illuminated in the proper light.	How Russiagate Began With Obama’s Iran Deal Domestic Spying Campaign by Lee Smith
5/10/2016	Papadopoulos, Downer	Meeting in London where Downer initially says Papdopoulos talked about someone having “damaging information” on Clinton.	White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Twitter account: Over several interviews, we've learned information suggesting the FBI secretly transcribed, and even taped, George Papadopoulos in 2016.	Twitter feed
5/11/2016	Strzok, Page	Text from Strzok to Page likely regarding Papadopoulos meeting with Downer	Text from Strzok talking about meeting with McCabe: STRZOK: “Yeah…Deputy Director calling State now…oooh…wanna hear about it? PAGE: You already talked to REDACTED? Crap, I’ve gotta go in 30 or so…cancel to sit in on this…”     Important: This is why the FBI has to say they didn’t hear from the State Department about the meeting until July 2016. If they acknowledge they heard about it in May the obvious question is why they didn’t do anything about it. So this buttresses the assumption that they started Crossfire Hurricane based on the Steele Dossier, NOT the Papadopoulos-Downer meeting in May.  Indicative of systemic lying and deception. Scheming.
7/5/2016	Steele, Gaeta, Nuland, Kramer	Steele met in Rome with his former FBI handler (on the FIFA case) Michael Gaeta, and Steele let Gaeta read the first memo of the the report (first three pages) one that had Trump with Russian prostitutes peeing on a bed supposedly slept in by Obama.	Gaeta said (under oath) that he let his superiors know about it. Christopher Steele provides FBI agent Mike Gaeta at the offices of Orbis in London. A report captioned "Company Intelligence Report 2016/080-U.S. Presidential Election: Republican Candidate Donald Trump's Activities in Russia and Compromising Relationship with the Kremlin," and is dated June 20, 2016 (Report 80). It contains numerous allegations about Trump, including that: (1) the "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting [Trump] for at least 5 years;" (2) "[Trump] and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals;" (3) Trump's activities in Moscow, including "perverted sexual acts," make him vulnerable to blackmail; (4) Russian Intelligence Services have collected "compromising material" on Hillary Clinton; and (5) the Kremlin has been "feeding" information to Trump's campaign for an extended period of time. The Schiff memo denies these facts. Steele's contemporaneous notes reflect that Steele told Gaeta that "Democratic Party associates" were paying for Fusion GPS's research, the "ultimate client" was the leadership of the Clinton presidential campaign, and "the candidate," Hillary Clinton. was aware of Steele's reporting. Permission was given by Victoria Nuland to meet with Steele. Nuland receives a copy by mid July and passes it to FBI Note this excerpt from the Transcript of the David Kramer (Aide to John McCain) interview in front of the House Intelligence committee on 12/19/2017 referencing this handing of the Steele Dossier to the FBI: MR. SCHIFF: Now, he informed you I think that he had a relationship with the FBI or had been in contact with the FBl, a relationship that ended in September-October? MR. KRAMER: Yes, I think - I believe the September-October is -- I think probably closer to October, but that he had contacted the person he knew who was stationed for the FBI I believe I in the summer of 2016, was in touch I believe two or three times with that person, and then the contact dried up. MR. SCHIFF: And do you know did he tell you how much of the information that would become the dossier he had provided to the FBI? MR. KRAMER: I don't know. I don't. I don't know. MR. SCHIFF: Did he explain to you why if he was in contact with the FBI he was worried that the FBI - or let me phrase it a different way. Did he communicate that he was concerned that the FBI hadn't taken the work seriously enough, or what made him think that, notwithstanding the relationship he had with the FBl, it needed to be brought to the level of the attention of the director or a higher level? MR. KRAMER: My impression is that he got initial interest in response from the FBl when he first presented this. They seemed interested in his pursuing it and continuing to pursue it, and then the communication rather abruptly ended. So he was worried that for whatever reason, he didn’t know the reason, that they were no longer taking it seriously. MR. SCHIFF: Now, you had suggested I think to Senator McCain that he give it to the head of the CIA and the FBl. MR. KRAMER: Yes.	Entire Steele Dossier. (page 1-3)
7/31/2016	Comey, McCabe	Crossfire Hurricane opened	The Crossfire Hurricane investigation is opened without having any specific subjects or targets for the investigation, supposedly based on the information from Alexander Downer about the infamous "meeting on May 10, 2016 with George Papadopoulos in London. Remember, THIS is officially the FBI's supposedly whole rationale for beginning the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation.  McCabe in Congressional Hearings states (after being questioned by Trey Gowdy) they they did not rely on the Steele Report for the FISA investigations. He said it was the info from the State Department with dates and names redacted. He is basically saying it was the Alexander Downer meeting.
8/10/2016	FBI	FBI opens counterintelligence cases on Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, and Manafort
8/10/2016	Steele	Memo sent to FBI (part of the “Steele Dossier”, page 15 on the link dated 8/10/2016, the date it was delivered)	Bongino hypothesizes (and I think it fits) that someone at the White House gets wind that same day (August 10th) that General Flynn was not in the group of men having counterintelligence cases opened on them (Papadopoulos, Manafort, and Page) and calls up their source (not sure if it is indeed Steele or Halper, or if they contact Steele and HE contacts Halper). They probably said "We need something specifically about Flynn so we can get him into this investigation...what do you have on him?"  See Strzok text from 10/13/2020 where he references this “receipt” of the Steele Dossier.	Entire Steele Dossier (page 15)
8/11/2016	Halper, FBI	Halper meets with FBI. (SOURCE 2 IN IG REPORT) and states he knew Manafort AND General Flynn.	FBI meets with Stefan Halper. Halper agrees to work with the Crossfire Hurricane team by reach out to George Papadopoulos allowing the Crossfire Hurricane team to collect assessment information on Papadopoulos and conduct an operation. Halper informs FBI of his July contact with Carter Page and previous contact with Flynn related to the Lokhova incident.	Analysis of official records of this meetings discussion (Note: This link is no longer active, as statedepartmentwatch.org no longer appears to exist. I am searching for an alternative source of this document which, since it was an official document that was released, likely under a FOIA Request, it should exist elsewhere)
8/15/2016	Strzok, Page, McCabe	Text message describing the “insurance policy” from a meeting with the three in Andy McCabe’s office on the 7th Floor at the FBI. From the IG report: Crossfire Hurricane Team talked about FISA warrant process to spy on the Trump team.	"I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy [McCabe]'s office that there's no way he gets elected -- but I'm afraid we can't take that risk. It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40.   Dan Bongino feels the “insurance policy” may simply have been to go to the FISA court to spy on Trump.
8/16/2016		Decision to open CROSSFIRE RAZOR counterintelligence case on General Flynn	Bongino on the reasons they have on the Electronic Communication (EC) for opening a case targeting General Flynn.  They don’t cite the Steele Report   They don’t cite SOURCE #2 (Halper)  Reasons: Flynn is advising President Trump; due to “open sources” (Google) he has contacts in Russia, and he traveled to Russia in December 2015 as reported by “open sources” (Google)
8/17/2016	Pientka	Agent Pientka is tasked by FBI to attend the PDB that day in order to gather information on President Trump and to observe Flynn to evaluate him for “tells” in the event he is called to testify in the future.	From the Epoch Times: On page xviii of the inspector general report, it was disclosed that Pientka was running the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign as its supervisor. Pientka was also the agent who provided defensive briefings to the Trump and Clinton campaigns in August 2016: “We learned during the course of our review that in August 2016, the supervisor of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, SSA 1 [Pientka], participated on behalf of the FBI in a strategic intelligence briefing given by Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to candidate Trump and his national security advisors, including Michael Flynn, and in a separate strategic intelligence briefing given to candidate Clinton and her national security advisors,” the report states. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), during congressional testimony given by Inspector General Horowitz, noted that the FBI used this meeting as an opportunity to effectively spy on the Trump campaign and gather further information—a characterization that Horowitz agreed with. Horowitz also said in his testimony he was concerned about this practice: Graham: “So when we get defensively briefed tomorrow, would it be okay for FBI agents to open up 302s on what we said?” Horowitz: “We have very significant concerns about that.” Horowitz noted in his report that Pientka was specifically selected to “provide the FBI briefings, in part, because Flynn, who was a subject in the ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation, would be attending the Trump campaign briefing.” Just prior to this defensive briefing, on Aug. 1, 2016, Strzok and Pientka “traveled to the European city to interview the FFG [Friendly Foreign Government] officials who met with Papadopoulos in May 2016.” The IG report noted that “during the interview they learned that Papadopoulos did not say that he had direct contact with the Russians.” It also appears that Pientka was in charge of selecting the Confidential Human Sources that were used against George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn: “In determining how to use CHSs in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, SSA 1 and the case agents told the OIG that they focused their CHS operations on the predicating information and the four named subjects,” the inspector general report states.	Epoch Times article detailing the role of Agent Pientka

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