Some of this rush to hire “advisers” started with the Op-Ed piece signed by a large group of anti-Trump republicans who said Trump had no experience in foreign affairs and didn’t have much of a staff. Within 2 weeks Trump announced about 50 new appointments, which included both Carter Page and Papadopoulis among others.
It is pretty obvious that the FBI then ran their ops at several of these people, and no surprise that some of them were double agents.
I can’t speak to the inside spy angle, but the record is clear that both Page and Papadopoulis both had multiple run-ins with multiple agents. One theory which I think the record supports is that the FBI and other intel agencies sent several operatives at them; first to plant ideas in their heads about Trump having Russian support, and then to solicit the information that was planted from them which would then be used as evidence to support this phony “Russia collusion” narrative.
Note that Page was never charged with anything, and Papadopoulis only convicted on one count of lying about something minor (14 days in jail penalty). Page had already been an agent for the FBI in anti-Russian stings in the past, there is no way Mueller was going to touch him. But they had run ins with the English professor and the Maltese professor; and Papadopoulis denies ever saying anything to the Aussie ambassador and doesn’t even know why he was invited to a cocktail hour meeting with him - but does remember being asked directly by the ambassador about Trump’s access to HRC electronic records and of being fed rumors to the like by others.
In a way Trump set himself up by making sarcastic remarks on the campaign trail things like “you know the Russians have the emails” and “maybe Putin will release the emails”. To me, he was just being bombastic. But to those trained the dark arts they saw it as an opportunity to play it out and make it appear like there was collusion.
Whether the op-ed was part of the plan (I wouldn’t put it past them; they push an op-ed saying he is weak in this area hoping he would then fill a roster of people in which the intel agencies would then have an opening to plant spies and frame the unwitting). Papadopoulis himself was added to a list of members of a London based international relations group which he seemingly had no part of; and by virtue of having his name on the list he was put on a short list by Trump team when they scrambled to fill seats on his “international advisers” teams.
Many little tidbits like that which are suspicious and deceptive.
The op-Ed may have been written by the CIA itself. Trump was better off with his very small set of advisors whom he knew personally.
He’s also the one that told Trump he was being spied upon and blew whistle regarding FISA abuses.