President Donald Trump’s former foreign policy aide, George Papadopoulos, claims that he was a victim of spying by certain people within the Australian, UK, and U.S. intelligence communities ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller, according to the summary, concluded there was no evidence that Trump and members of the president’s election campaign, including Papadopoulos, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government ahead of the election.
“The witch hunt is over,” Papadopoulos, Trump’s former campaign foreign policy aide, told AAP on Sunday.
“Declassification of surveillance material is paramount.”
Papadopoulos has been refuting Australian diplomat and former politician Alexander Downer’s claim that he was the one to inform Downer as then Australian high commissioner to the UK about Russia’s alleged possession of thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Downer, in an interview with The Australian newspaper last year, claimed Papadopoulos told him that Russia might use “damaging” material they had on Trump presidential rival Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election during a meeting in a London bar in May 2016 before Donald Trump’s 2016 election win. Downer’s assistant, Erika Thompson, was also at the meeting. Papadopoulos has since claimed that Thompson maybe an Australian intelligence officer.
Downer said he was the one to pass that information back to Canberra “the following day or a day or two.”
The Wall Street Journal, quoting a diplomatic source, also reported that Downer was the one to pass on Papadopoulos’s Russia information directly to the U.S. embassy in London.
The meeting between Papadopoulos and Downer is credited as one of the triggers for the FBI investigation that led to Mueller’s probe.
Papadopolous’s book “Deep State Target” will be released on Tuesday, March 26, and details his account of dealings with Downer, Thompson, Trump, and others.
In September last year, Trump wrote on Twitter “key allies” had asked him not to release classified FBI documents related to the probe into Russian influence.
Papadopoulos believes the allies were elements within Australia and the UK and he wants their involvement to be made public.
“While the (Mueller) report is likely mired in classified material, and most will likely never be revealed to the public, I do hope what is public is what Alexander Downer’s and Erika Thompson’s roles were and why Downer has become so protected,” Papadopoulos said.
Papadopoulos also says that U.S. congressional sources revealed to him that a transcript exists of his London bar conversation with Downer, according to AAP. A transcript would prove Downer taped their conversation without his knowledge, he said.
As foreign minister, Downer also oversaw the Australian Secret Intelligence Service at the time of the East Timor spying scandal. After leaving politics, he became a board member for Huawei Australia with John Lord and John Brumby. Downer resigned from the board in 2014.
Downer had previously avoided engaging in Papadopoulos’s spying accusation, telling BBC radio last year: “I’m not going to get into these sort of allegations.”
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not denied Papadopoulos’s account of his interaction with Downer in previously media interviews and told The New York Times in January 2018 that he was not concerned over the revelation as Australia’s relationship with the United States was in “excellent shape.”
“The government won’t be making additional comments on a matter that relates to an ongoing investigation in the U.S.,” he said at the time. “So we’ve got nothing further to add to that.”
“Let it come out, let people see it,” Trump said.
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