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The Curious Case of Alexander Downer
The Wall Street Journal ^ | 31 May 2018 | Kimberley A. Strassel

Posted on 06/01/2018 7:51:35 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss

To hear the Federal Bureau of Investigation tell it, its decision to launch a counterintelligence probe into a major-party presidential campaign comes down to a foreign tip about a 28-year-old fourth-tier Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos.

snip

We are told the infamous tip came from Alexander Downer, at the time the Australian ambassador to the U.K. Mr. Downer invited Mr. Papadopoulos for a drink in early May 2016, where the aide told the ambassador the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

snip

When Mr. Downer ended his service in the U.K. this April, he sat for an interview with the Australian, a national newspaper, and “spoke for the first time” about the Papadopoulos event. Mr. Downer said he officially reported the Papadopoulos meeting back to Australia “the following day or a day or two after,” as it “seemed quite interesting.” The story nonchalantly notes that “after a period of time, Australia’s ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, passed the information on to Washington.”

My reporting indicates otherwise. A diplomatic source tells me Mr. Hockey neither transmitted any information to the FBI nor was approached by the U.S. about the tip. Rather, it was Mr. Downer who at some point decided to convey his information—to the U.S. Embassy in London.

We also know that it wasn’t Australian intelligence that alerted the FBI. The document that launched the FBI probe contains no foreign intelligence whatsoever. So if Australian intelligence did receive the Downer info, it didn’t feel compelled to act on it.

But the Obama State Department did—and its involvement is news. The Downer details landed with the embassy’s then-chargé d’affaires, Elizabeth Dibble, who previously served as a principal deputy assistant secretary in Mrs. Clinton’s State Department.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: downer; spygate; strassel
So the information landed on the desk of a Clintonista? What a surprise!

Here's a theory:

The Electronic Communication opening the FBI investigation at the end of July 2016 was based on nothing but the earliest parts of the Steele Dossier passed along through John Brennan or Hillary people at the State Dept. The Steele Dossier was a Hillary campaign-produced smear document with laughably over-the-top allegations against Trump that could not be substantiated.

By January 2017 the Obama administration realized that, having lost the election, they better go back and try to shore up the basis for the illegal spying by the Obama administration against the political opposition presidential campaign. Sally Yates was Acting Attorney General at this time.

I would guess that through examining the illegal interception of Trump people communications, they had hit pay dirt on Papadopoulos - maybe drug usage or cheating on his wife or girlfriend or a financial irregularity - and in January 2017 used that to pressure him into creating the story that Professor Mifsud (who is really linked to MI6, not to the FSB) told him about the Hillary emails (but in reality he heard Judge Napolitano say that Russia had Hillary emails on Fox News TV the day before he met Downer for drinks).

See this thread:

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3659311/posts

I speculate that they went back and faked the documentation the FBI claimed they relied on to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump Campaign, to try to shore it up by adding Papadopoulos to it.

We need a second Special Counsel with real investigators drawn not from the swamp, using a grand jury, who can flip witnesses and aggressively go after the evidence. But already, no doubt much evidence in the form of private communications has already been purged and destroyed.

1 posted on 06/01/2018 7:51:35 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Meet the New Boss

See this thread:

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3659311/posts


2 posted on 06/01/2018 7:51:55 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Meet the New Boss

The FBI needed to create a cover story as they executed Obama’s order to infiltrate and sabotage the Trump campaign.


3 posted on 06/01/2018 7:56:35 AM PDT by allendale (.)
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To: Meet the New Boss

...and under this theory, that is why the DOJ has been refusing to show the actual document to Nunes even after the President basically told them to be transparent — because it’s fake.


4 posted on 06/01/2018 7:56:38 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Meet the New Boss

“We need a second Special Counsel with real investigators drawn not from the swamp,“

We need an Attorney General who will do the damned job.

L


5 posted on 06/01/2018 8:02:00 AM PDT by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: Meet the New Boss

I wonder if there’s a “deep throat” helping Kimberly Strassel.

Can you imagine that? If that were true, and if it ever came out, the Democrats would be screaming for that person’s head on a platter.

Unlike the reaction of the Republicans to learning about the existence of the Watergate Deep Throat.


6 posted on 06/01/2018 8:03:34 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: Meet the New Boss
Elizabeth Dibble

Yet another traitorous bureaucrat embedded like a tick. The circle of traitors keeps expanding.

7 posted on 06/01/2018 8:05:25 AM PDT by bkopto
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To: Lurker

Yes, we need a real AG, not Mr. Magoo, who only works when he wants to. After well over 20 years in Congress plus the Alabama political system for years, we have another part time master screw off- just like the VA and most other federal employees.


8 posted on 06/01/2018 8:10:43 AM PDT by Lumper20
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To: Meet the New Boss

9 posted on 06/01/2018 8:11:44 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Lurker
We need an Attorney General who will do the damned job.

It's no more complicated than that.

Except for Trump, and a few surprises scattered through government, we're on our own.

At this time we need an AG empowered to investigate the misdeeds of the 2016 election...not some Assistant Flunky from the swamp, but a real, visible leader. If Sessions is unable or unwilling to fill that role, he needs to go.

I'm done with business as usual, and I strongly suspect I have a lot of company. No more 3-D chess, no more nonsense about the integrity of the FBI/Comey/appointee du jour.

We've witnessed a soft coup. If the feds are unable to do anything about it, then how is that any different from judges/Congress/etc failing to act on Bammy's lawlessness?

If we're past that, then turn out the lights.

10 posted on 06/01/2018 8:27:02 AM PDT by gogeo
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To: Meet the New Boss
Judge Napolitano to Megyn Kelly on The Kelly File on May 9, 2016, the DAY BEFORE Papadopoulos met Alexander Downer for drinks:

"And at the same time we learn there's a debate going on in the Kremlin between the foreign ministry and the intelligence services about whether they should release the 20,000 of Mrs. Clinton's emails that they have hacked into and received and stored"

11 posted on 06/01/2018 8:32:14 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
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To: Meet the New Boss
It's my view that the HRC emails are at the bottom of this entire charade.

The IC was too clever by half because they tried to kill two birds w/ one stone:

1) find out exactly how much the Russkies had and freeze it and

2) Pin the dirt on the Trump campaign.

12 posted on 06/01/2018 10:03:44 AM PDT by Pietro
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