Australian Press Confirms Papadopoulos’s Drunken Claims Led To FBI Probe
Donald Trump campaign aide got drunk at a wine bar and bragged about Russian email hack against Democrats.
It was the Australian ambassador to the United States who told the FBI that a Trump campaign aide had revealed knowledge of Russian email hacking which sparked the FBI’s investigation into collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, a new report reveals.
The Australian ambassador told the FBI about a meeting between Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos and High Commissioner to Britain Alexander Downer, in which Papadopoulos bragged that he knew that Russians had hacked Democrats’ emails and had dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The story which was first reported by The New York Times was confirmed by the Sydney Morning Herald.
As The New York Times first reported: “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 Australia’s 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.”
The Australian ambassador felt the revelations of Russian hacking important enough to contact the FBI.
And now that the story has been reported, the Australian government is annoyed that Downer’s identity has been revealed as the source of the information because of leaks from U.S. officials, according to the Morning Herald.
[image via Twitter]
