I agree that Papadopoulos was a patsy, but no more.
Case in point: No need for the charade by which he was introduced to Downer. Furthermore, no need to “disappear” Professor Joseph Mifsud or, for that matter any need to orchestrate via Halper.
If this ‘op’ had been run professionally, I might concede that they pulled him out by charging him.
But this ‘op’ was a hack from start to finish. There are probably so many foreign moles - Russian, Chinese and more - in our security services and government that nothing at all is secret and we’re all being played.
Thus, if this ‘op’ was genuinely intended to destabilize our government, then the Russians wouldn’t look like the heroes for exposing it.
If you look carefully at what team Zero wanted to do, they came very close to accomplishing it by (IMHO) setting up Hillary and this whole charade. Thus, there was no need for any moles within the campaign if all that was necessary was to ensnare them. Besides, the WH remains a sieve of leaks.
Another case-in-point: We still don’t know who Imran Awan was working for.
If this ‘op’ had been run professionally, I might concede that they pulled him out by charging him.
But this ‘op’ was a hack from start to finish. There are probably so many foreign moles - Russian, Chinese and more - in our security services and government that nothing at all is secret and we’re all being played.
Laura Ingraham (who had a panel with Mollie Hemingway, Roger Stone and Saul Weissman?) was mocking this hack op, on her show, last night.