US President Donald Trump has announced he wants Australia’s role in sparking the FBI probe into links between Russia and his election campaign examined by US Attorney-General William Barr.
Despite Australia’s historically strong alliance with the United States, President Trump specifically named Australia as a nation whose part in what he calls the “Russia hoax” must be thoroughly investigated.
“What I’ve done is I’ve declassified everything,” Mr Trump told AAP reporters at the White House on Friday before departing on a trip to Japan.
“He can look and I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine.
“I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country.”
In addition to President Trump’s allegations, his former campaign aide George Papadopoulos is also pointing the finger at Australia. Mr Papadopoulos has claimed Australia’s former high commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer, set up a meeting at a bar in London in 2016 to purely to spy on him. “I believe Australian and UK intelligence were involved in an active operation to target Trump and his associates,” Papadopoulos said.
There has been no love lost between the two men, with Papadopolous referring to Downer as, “The Devil From Down Under” in his book Deep State Target.
In another unsubstantiated claim, Papadopoulos insists Mr Downer recorded their conversation with a phone during the brief meeting at the Kensington Wine Rooms. “The phone comes out again,” Papadopoulos writes in the book. “He must have grabbed it and held it up at least four times. “He is so aggressive, so hostile, it’s actually a bit intimidating.”
Mr Downer has always rejected the claims, along with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. “The Australian government categorically rejects any allegation that it sought somehow to interfere in the US presidential election,” said a DFAT spokesperson.
However, Mr Downer did confirm that during the meeting, Mr Papadopoulos revealed Russia had damaging material on Mr Trump’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton. In a back and forth between the pair, Papadopoulos denies telling Mr Downer about the Russian information, but he does not deny the knowledge. “I never told Downer anything about hacked emails,” Papadopoulos said. “I’m confident I never said that.”
The information was forwarded to Canberra and then passed on to US intelligence services and the FBI. US Special Counsel Bob Mueller, in his report on the links between the Trump campaign and Russia, stated the Papadopoulos-Downer meeting was what prompted the FBI to open its probe on July 31, 2016.
President Trump’s announcement made waves on social media, with users tweeting up a storm about the potential impact on Australia’s ties with the US.
RELATED: Mueller Report: Australian role in Trump investigation
“I may very well talk to her about that, yeah,” Mr Trump said. “There’s word and rumour that the FBI and others were involved, CIA were involved, with the UK, having to do with the Russian hoax,” Mr Trump said.
Five Eyes is the intelligence sharing alliance between the US, Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand.
The fbi losers are TRAITORS! Arrest them. Hang them after a fair, speedy trial and conviction, of course).
.......there are dozens of memos that make up an actual diary of moment-by-moment events, during the FBI
investigation of Donald Trump (as candidate and as president), documented by Obama's FBI Director Comey......
SOURCE: CONSERVATIVE TREEHOUSE | 4/9/2019 | SUNDANCE / FR Posted by bitt
A late day submission to DC Circuit Court in a FOIA case reveals the content of previously
unknown James Comey memos. Obama's entire anti-Trump operation is memorialized in writing:
<><> how Obama’s FBI Director James Comey wrote down the sources and code-names assigned;
<><> how confidential sources engaged with FISA coverage initiated by Obama's FBI;
<><> naming foreign governments assisting Obama and Hillary with their vile efforts;
<><> and the rollout plans for Obama's phony investigation....."by the book."
======================================
During her ill-fated campaign Hillary bragged about “foreign governments” supporting her election.
Are these the same “foreign governments” Comey had assisting their efforts to frame Trump? (smirk)
That would mean Obama, Comey and Hillary were colluding with
foreign governments to meddle in our elections, wouldnt it?
Ping