Go read the Meuller Reoprt again re: Mifsud and Pap

quote:

---

During that meeting, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that he had met with high—level
Russian government of?cials during his recent trip to Moscow. Mifsud also said that, on the trip,
he learned that the Russians had obtained “dirt” on candidate Hillary Clinton. As Papadopoulos
later stated to the FBI, Mifsud said that the “dirt” was in the form of “emails of Clinton,” and that
they “have thousands of emails.”464 On May 6, 2016, 10 days after that meeting with Mifsud,
Papadopoulos suggested to a representative of a foreign government that the Trump Campaign had
received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the
anonymous release of information that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.465

---

quote:

---

Papadopoulos Statement of Offense 11 14.

---

quote:

---

This information is contained in the FBI case-opening document and related materials. (this is an edit where it was previously redacted but was struck through on the final version an the pdf optical reader didn't read it well). The foreign government conveyed this information to the US. govrnment on July 26, 2016, a. few days after WikiLeaks’s release of Clinton-related emails. The FBI opened its investigation of potential coordination between Russia and the Trump Campaign a few days later based on the information.

---

quote:

---

Papadopoulos said his discussions with Halper — identified this year by The Washington Post as an FBI informant in the Russia case — were among more than a half-dozen contacts that U.S. and Western intelligence figures initiated with Papadopoulos during the campaign.

---

quote:

---

Once Mifsud conveyed the information to him, Papadopoulos began getting overtures from Western and U.S. intelligence.

In late April 2016, for example, two officials at the U.S. Embassy in London, who identified themselves as DIA officers, probed Papadopoulos for information about Trump and Russia.

“They were wining and dining me as if I were Marilyn Monroe,” Papadopoulos told me. “They said, ‘You are an individual, George, that has tons of contacts in Athens and you are a subject of interest.’ ”

He said the two intelligence officers then asked about Moscow: “They were trying to find out why Trump was willing to work with Russia. They were trying to act as if they were pro-working with Russia.”

Around the same time, he said, an Israeli diplomat who portrayed himself as friendly to the Obama State Department, and decidedly opposed to Trump, befriended him in London. The Israeli official questioned him about where Trump stood on Russia and Iran issues, and introduced Papadopoulos to a woman he identified as his girlfriend.

That woman, Papadopoulos said, apparently worked for Australian intelligence and set up a meeting for him at a London bar to meet the Australian ambassador to England, Alexander Downer.

---

quote:

---

The FBI officially opened the Trump-Russia case on July 31, 2016, based on suspicions that Papadopoulos had prior knowledge that Russia hacked Clinton’s emails, but it quickly pivoted by early fall 2016 to evidence such as the Democratic-funded dossier produced by Christopher Steele, and Trump campaign adviser Carter Page’s trips to Moscow. The FISA warrant was drafted to target surveillance at Page but also cited Papadopoulos in a section that suggested Russia was coordinating election collusion through Page and "perhaps other individuals associated" with Trump's campaign.

“The truth is, the Papadopoulos predicate went into reversal, but rather than shut down the probe at that point, the bureau turned to other leads like Steele and Page without giving the court a full picture,” one source said.

---