The Australian diplomat who provided the FBI with information that launched the agency’s Russia probe previously helped Australia donate to the Clinton Foundation to assist in combating AIDS, according to a new report.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer helped arrange a $25 million donation from Australia to the Clinton Foundation that would support screening and medication to AIDS patients in Asia in 2006, the Hill reports.
Downer is currently Australia’s ambassador to London and was the one who notified the FBI of a conversation he had with Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos. That conversation initiated the FBI’s Russia probe. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year to misleading FBI agents concerning his contacts with Russians.
According to the Australian Foreign Ministry, the grant went to assist those in Asia receive anti-retroviral AIDS medication and was processed like other annual foreign aid awards.
Lawmakers claim the FBI did not inform Congress about Downer’s involvement with the donation, raising concerns about the FBI for some Republicans.
“The Clintons’ tentacles go everywhere. So, that’s why it’s important,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “We continue to get new information every week it seems that sort of underscores the fact that the FBI hasn’t been square with us.”
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson Nick Merrill said it was “laughable” that some have connected the donation and the ongoing Russia probe.
“These conspiracies being peddled by the right are no more than a pathetic and sustained effort to distract from the fact that we have a President who refuses to defend his own country against widespread attacks on American democracy,” he said, according to The Hill.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, along with several other congressional panels, are investigating if the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 election.
