A senior Australian official says his country is “now ready to confirm” a chain of events between the high commissioner to the UK and a Trump campaign adviser that led to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to a report.
Alexander Downer, Australia’s former high commissioner to the UK who famously met George Papadopoulos at a London bar, claimed last year that the Trump aide had told him Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
A senior Australian foreign official now says his department is ready to confirm the meeting and release redacted documents, because special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe has ended and his redacted report is about to be released, according to BuzzFeed News, which filed a Freedom of Information request.
“I have again reviewed these matters and, while standing by the validity of the original decisions at the time they were made, the Department has reassessed its position in relation to Mr. Di Stefano’s three requests in light of the recent conclusion of the U.S. Special Counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” the official wrote to Australia’s Information Commissioner Gillian Cameron.
“Notably, in light of the conclusion of that investigation, the Department is now ready to confirm that a meeting occurred between Mr. Downer and Mr. Papdopolous (sic), on 10 May 2016, whilst Mr. Downer was High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.”
Included in the materials released to BuzzFeed is a calendar invite and a diplomatic cable Downer wrote about the sit-down.
The senior foreign official said Downer’s cable had been heavily redacted because the full document could “reasonably be expected” to damage Australia’s relationship with the US.
Papadopoulos served 12 days in jail after he admitted lying to the FBI in October 2017 about his contacts with a British professor, Joseph Mifsud, who claimed to have dirt on Clinton.
He has said he’d like a pardon from President Trump but doesn’t expect to get one.
“My lawyers are handling it. My lawyers have formally applied for a pardon,” Papadopoulos said in an interview. “I don’t have expectations to be pardoned.”
https://nypost.com/2019/04/18/australia-ready-to-confirm-key-meeting-that-led-to-mueller-probe/
2019-04-18 13:19:00Z
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