U.S. Attorney John Durham reportedly interviewed the Australian diplomat whose tip about George Papadopoulos effectively started the counterintelligence investigation into President Trump’s campaign in July 2016.
Alexander Downer, who was Australia’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom up until last year, met with Durham’s team last month in London and is said to have told investigators he was not part of a conspiratorial plot to undermine Trump, according to the Australian.
Under the supervision of Attorney General William Barr, Durham is conducting an investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, examining the conduct of the Justice Department, FBI, and intelligence community. Last month, Durham shifted his administrative review to a criminal investigation that allows his team the power to impanel a grand jury and hand down indictments.
He has also been in communication with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who recently completed an investigation into allegations of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses by the DOJ and the FBI. Horowitz’s report is expected to be released in the coming weeks following a classification review.
Downer met Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, at London’s Kensington Wine Rooms in May 2016. At this meeting, Papadopoulos said the Russians had damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election. Two months later, when WikiLeaks published stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, Downer informed the United States about what Papadopoulos had told him. This prompted the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation, called Crossfire Hurricane, in July 2016. It is believed that controversial FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok signed the order that launched the inquiry.
The counterintelligence operation was later wrapped into special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which concluded earlier this year and was unable to find sufficient proof to establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
While in London, Durham viewed a confidential cable Downer sent to Australia’s capital Canberra in May 2016 after speaking with Papadopoulos. He also interviewed another Australian diplomat in London, Erika Thompson, who arranged and attended Downer’s meeting with Papadopoulos.
The Justice Department declined to comment following a request for confirmation from the Washington Examiner.
Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russians and served 12 days in prison late last year, claims the man who informed him that the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton in the form of “thousands” of Clinton’s emails was Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud. Mifsud denied to the FBI he knew or mentioned anything about emails.
Durham’s team is also looking into Mifsud, who has not made a public appearance since 2017. Barr and Durham recently flew to Rome to meet with Italian intelligence to obtain government information on Mifsud and listen to a secret recording of the elusive academic.
Mueller said in his Russia investigation report that Mifsud may have ties to Russian intelligence, but Papadopoulos, Republican allies of Trump, and Stephan Roh, a lawyer who claims to represent Mifsud, all believe he was actually cooperating with Western intelligence services in the U.S., United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia. Papadopoulos has said Downer was working with Mifsud in an effort to undermine Trump’s campaign. The Australian government and Downer have denied this accusation.
“This sort of idea that there is a kind of a ASIS-ASIO-MI6-MI5-FBI-CIA-Ukrainian government conspiracy to bring down the Trump administration, that this is treason, that I should be in Guantanamo Bay … I mean, it’s a little bit sad that people take that kind of thought seriously,” Downer said earlier this year.
