Report: Trump aides drunken night kicked off Russia investigation
George Papadopoulos got drunk in May 2016 and told an Australian diplomat the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton.
A former Trump aide’s drunk bragging to an Australian diplomat may have kicked off the entire Russia investigation, according to a new report in The New York Times.
On Saturday, the paper reported that George Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told Australian diplomat Alexander Downer that Russia had political dirt on Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, after a night of heavy drinking in May 2016.
Less than a month earlier, he had been told that Russia had emails that would embarrass the former secretary of state. That information came courtesy of Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor with contacts in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who, in April 2016, told Papadopoulos he’d learned the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.”
When leaked Democratic emails began appearing online in July, apparently timed to the Democratic national convention, Australian officials passed on the information about Papadopoulos to the United States, according to the Times, citing four current and former American and foreign officials. Australia is one of the United States’ closest intelligence allies.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2017/12/30/16833954/george-papadopoulos-trump-times
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