Repeated denials by George Papadopoulos about the Trump campaign being involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee were never relayed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court despite being recorded by an FBI source.
Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, was swept up in the FBI’s Russia-related Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence investigation. Unbeknownst to him, in the months leading up to and following the 2016 election, he repeatedly spoke with confidential human sources tasked by the FBI to question certain members of Trump’s campaign and to hand over their recorded conversations to the bureau.
The potentially exculpatory denials Papadopoulos provided were not included in the FISA warrants targeting Trump campaign associate Carter Page, and a four-page snippet of conversation transcript obtained by CBS News revealed new details about what was concealed from the secret spy court. The Daily Caller later obtained a 171-page transcript.
Papadopoulos was apparently dubbed “Crossfire Typhoon” by investigators.
“No, I don’t think so. … There’s absolutely no reason,” Papadopoulos told one confidential human source in October 2016 when pressed about whether the Trump campaign had a hand in the Russian military intelligence effort to hack the DNC’s email systems and provide the information to WikiLeaks. “First of all, it’s illegal, you know, to do that shit. No one would put their f—ing life at risk of going to jail for the next 50 years to back some bullshit that may mean nothing.”
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s lengthy December report criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the FISA warrants for Page, and for the bureau’s reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s salacious and unverified dossier. Steele put his research together at the behest of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. Horowitz criticized the bureau for not sharing exculpatory information from confidential human sources with the FISA court.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making false statements to the FBI about his discussions with mysterious Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud, whom he said informed him about possible Russian “dirt” on Clinton. Papadopoulos spent two weeks behind bars.
Special counsel Robert Mueller said Mifsud had ties to the Russian government. Some Republicans suspect Mifsud had ties to Western intelligence, and Horowitz said he didn’t work for the CIA. Mifsud was questioned by the FBI in February 2017. Mifsud denied telling Papadopoulos anything about Russian “dirt” and claimed his Russian contacts were not significant. He was allowed to leave the country and has largely disappeared since.
The FBI’s investigation was initiated in late July 2016 and was later wrapped into Mueller’s investigation. It allegedly began after Australian diplomat Alexander Downer met with Papadopoulos at London’s Kensington Wine Rooms in May 2016, where Papadopoulos said Russians had damaging information on Clinton. Two months later, after WikiLeaks published stolen DNC emails, the Australians informed the United States about what Papadopoulos told Downer.
Horowitz said the genesis of the investigation was unrelated to the dossier. And the DOJ watchdog said the predicate for the investigation was “sufficient” because of a “first-hand account from a friendly foreign government employee of a conversation with Papadopoulos.”
The Steele dossier’s central thesis was “a well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” between the Trump campaign and Russia, but Mueller didn’t agree. Although Mueller concluded the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election, the investigation did not establish that the Kremlin and Trump’s campaign criminally conspired together.
Horowitz showed the FBI concealed significant information provided by confidential human source Stefan Halper — known as “Source 2” in the report. Halper, 75, a Virginia resident and Cambridge professor, worked as an FBI informant in 2016 and had discussions with at least three Trump campaign members: Papadopoulos, Page, and Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis.
When Halper’s role as an FBI informant was leaked to the media in May 2018, it led to accusations from Trump and Republicans in Congress that the Obama administration used Halper as part of an illegal effort to spy on the Trump campaign, dubbed “Spygate” by allies of the president.
Papadopoulos also spoke with a person dubbed “Source 3,” who was described by Horowitz as “an individual with a connection to Papadopoulos who may be willing to act as a confidential human source, based on statements Source 3 had made to the FBI several years prior, during an interview in an unrelated investigation.”
When pressed by Source 3 in October 2016 about whether Russia was “playing a big game” in the election, the new transcripts show Papadopoulos said “no” and tried to cast doubt on Russia hacking the DNC.
“I don’t think so. That’s all bullshit. No one know’s who’s hacking them,” Papadopoulos said, adding, “Could be the Chinese, could be the Iranians, it could be some Bernie, uh, supporters. Could be — Anonymous.”
Papadopoulos said, “I know for a fact” that the Trump campaign wasn’t involved with the hack.
When asked whether he thought the Russians had an “interest” in Trump, Papadopoulos again denied it.
“They, dude, no one knows how a president’s going to govern anyway. You don’t just say, ‘Oh, I like — ‘“ he said, adding, “I mean, the Congress is very hostile with Russia anyways, so … I don’t know, I don’t know. And even [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said it himself … It’s all, it’s like conspiracy theories.”
Papadopoulos commented on the release of the interview transcript on his verified Twitter account.
“My profanity laced interview with yet another loser informant has been published. I promise you there is a conspiracy case being built around this frame job. I know exactly who it is,” he said.
My profanity laced interview with yet another loser informant has been published. I promise you there is a conspiracy case being built around this frame job. I know exactly who it is. https://t.co/xRG72AHxFZ
— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) April 9, 2020
Horowitz determined that in the first Page FISA application, the FBI omitted recorded statements from September 2016 by Papadopoulos “denying that anyone associated with the Trump campaign was collaborating with Russia or with outside groups like WikiLeaks in the release of emails.” The DOJ watchdog concluded that in the three renewal applications, investigators omitted Papadopoulos, “denying that the Trump campaign was involved in the circumstances of the DNC email hack” during an October 2016 conversation.
Mueller’s two-year investigation concluded that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion” through the hacking of Democratic emails and social media disinformation campaigns, but it “did not establish” any conspiracy between Trump and Russia.
