TechRocks
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The Curious Case of Mr. Downer
Quote: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.
The FBI’s media scribes have dutifully reported the bare facts of that “intel.” 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. Word of this encounter at some point reached the FBI, inspiring it to launch its counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign on July 31.
Notably (nay, suspiciously) absent or muddled are the details of how and when that information made its way to the FBI, and what exactly was transmitted. A December 2017 New York Times story vaguely explains that the Australians passed the info to “American counterparts” about “two months later,” and that once it “reached the FBI,” the bureau acted. Even the Times admits it’s “not clear” why it took the Aussies so long to flip such a supposedly smoking tip. The story meanwhile slyly leads readers to believe that Mr. Papadopoulos told Mr. Downer that Moscow had “thousands of emails,” but read it closely and the Times in fact never specifies what the Trump aide said, beyond “dirt.”
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.
Mr. Downer’s job was to report his meeting back to Canberra, and leave it to Australian intelligence. 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.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-curious...mail_share
Remember the stories about how there was all sorts of back and forth between the US intelligence agencies and the Aussies trying to get them to free up this earth-shattering news that Papadoc had told the Aussie Ambassador that the Ruskis had "thousands of Cankle emails?.
In a nutshell, according to the WSJ's Kimberley Strassel, not only did Papadoc not tell Downer the Ruskis had thousands of Cankle emails (he told Downer only that they had "dirt" on Cankles), the info was passed by Downer to Obama State Department employees in the London office.
Which brings up another question, at least to me. In his first interview with the FBI in 2017, Papadoc said that this mystery-man Misfud was the one who told him about the Ruskis having thousands of Cankle emails, April of 2016 I believe it was. If Papadoc didn't make that same claim to Downer, then how did the FBI know in late July of 2016 that Papadoc claimed the Ruskis had thousands of Cankle emails, and therefore needed to start a counterintelligence investigation?
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06-01-2018 09:57 AM |
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SoMs Eagle
Heisman
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RE: The Curious Case of Mr. Downer
Because it was an obvious setup job. A rather amateurish one at that. Anyone who doesn’t think so is not being honest.
They will count on those dishonest ones to continue to cloudy the water.
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06-01-2018 10:21 AM |
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JMUDunk
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The Curious Case of Mr. Downer
They had plants dropping tidbits of “inside” scoop or info, found the weakest, most vulnerable or easily swayed gullible people they could find to drop it to.
Then they had another plant amazingly, yet “coincidentally” show up and say “Oh, hey! I hear the mad ROOOSKIES!!! have some good ish on the H> and her campaign. Have you heard that?”
Papadoc with his guard down says Yea! I have heard that!
Bingo! It’s now “corroboration” of this myth. Apparently sufficient, in conjunction with the fake dossier, to snowball a FISA judge(s) into issuing the spying warrants. And thus, here we are.
What’s somewhat amazing to watch is that all the “lies” by our President have eventually turned out to be mostly materially correct.
The fun part is how batschit crazy it’s turned the blithering, idiotic, talking head punditry class into.
Sight to behold...
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06-01-2018 10:48 AM |
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green
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RE: The Curious Case of Mr. Downer
(06-01-2018 10:48 AM)JMUDunk Wrote: Bingo! It’s now “corroboration” of this myth. Apparently sufficient, in conjunction with the fake dossier, to snowball a FISA judge(s) into issuing the spying warrants.
DOESN'T PASS THE SMELL TEST
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06-01-2018 11:00 AM |
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TechRocks
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RE: The Curious Case of Mr. Downer
Dreamed up by the Cankles camp, details distributed by Obama State Department employees, intelligence "gathering" provided by tax-payer funded CIA and FBI, and all managed by the book by the Magic Man & Minions.
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06-01-2018 11:44 AM |
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green
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RE: The Curious Case of Mr. Downer
(06-01-2018 11:44 AM)TechRocks Wrote: Dreamed up by the Cankles camp, details distributed by Obama State Department employees, intelligence "gathering" provided by tax-payer funded CIA and FBI, and all managed by the book by the Magic Man & Minions.
it bears repeating ...
concocted to inoculate crooked h: smear her opponent with the same shame ...
well, he's under fbi investigation too ...
HOCUS POCUS
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06-01-2018 11:55 AM |
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