Australia helped spark FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, says report

WashingTon: Information shared by Australia helped spark the FBI’s probe into Russia’s attempts to disrupt the US presidential election and possible collusion by Donald Trump’s campaign, The New York Times reported.

George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, told Australia’s ex-foreign minister Alexander Downer that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, information that Australia later passed on to its close ally the United States, the Times said.

The conversation between Papadopoulos and Downer, then Australia’s high commissioner to Britain, took place at an upscale London bar in May 2016, the Times said, after Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential challenger in the election which Trump won.

“Two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr Papadopoulos to their American counterparts,” the Times said, citing four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.

“It was first-hand information from one of America’s closest intelligence allies” that alarmed the FBI and helped prompt them to begin investigating, the Times said.

The investigation was also spurred by intelligence from other allies, including the British and Dutch governments, the Times said.

The report added it was unclear whether Downer was “fishing” for information during the Papadopoulos meeting, which came about because of a series of connections that began with an Israeli embassy official. — AFP