FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Papadopoulos Hits the British Dead Center
Sept. 19, 2018 (EIRNS)— George Papadopoulos, who has accepted a whopping 14-day sentence for his pleading guilty for lying to the FBI, has now come clean with his experience as a target of British intelligence, aimed at getting to Trump. Speaking on Martha MacCallum’s “The Story” on Fox last night, he said he has retraced his steps, in his notes and in his memory, leading up to the infamous meeting with then-Australian High Commissioner to the U.K. Alexander Downer in a bar in London in late April 2016. He said the American people deserve to hear the story, and that he would be testifying before the Congress.
Excerpts of his statement:
“The people I was meeting were incredibly suspicious. It was clear this meeting [with Downer] was completely controlled, and was not a random invitation for a drink.
“There was an Israeli diplomat, Christian Cantor, who absolutely detested Trump, who one day in London decided to introduce me to his so-called girlfriend, Erika Thompson, who just happened to be an intelligence officer from Australia, and a senior advisor to Downer. This was April 2016. I only learned about the dirt from Mifsud [the Maltese academic spook who told him that the Russians had e-mails hacked from the U.S.] in late April.
“Why was an Australian intelligence officer meeting with me and probing me about ... what the campaign was doing in regard to Russia, in April, before Mifsud told me about the dirt?
“Fast forward to the beginning of May. I had given an interview to the Times of London in which I essentially humiliated—by accident, I guess—the U.K. prime minister by asking him to apologize and retract his derogatory statements about candidate Trump, about his idea about a Muslim ban—I thought David Cameron should never have been calling Trump stupid or idiotic for these comments. It doesn’t matter if the U.K. is an ally or not, their Prime Minister should not have intervened in the democratic process in this country.
“A couple of days after that interview, all of a sudden I’m approached by two officials from what I think are the Defense Intelligence Agency of the U.S. Embassy in London, who decide to meet with me and probe me about what is happening. Then a day or so after that, Alexander Downer wants to meet me in a bar, along with his assistant, who is an Australian intelligence officer. Now, I do not remember at all talking about e-mails with Downer. He himself has contradicted himself, I think at least three times, in subsequent interviews he has given about the encounter. What I remember was that he was incredibly belligerent, he despised Trump, he was very hostile toward the campaign.”
[MacCallum put up a tweet from him:
“The BRITISH (Stefan Halper), AUSTRALIAN (Alexander Downer and Erika Thompson) and TURKISH (Azra Turk, spy working for Halper) all spied on an American citizen and campaign. Obama, Brennan and Clapper knew.”
MacCallum asks if he can prove the Americans were in on it:]
“All I can say is ... that when Stefan Halper lured me to London, it is unfathomable that the British government did not realize, or have information of, what was going on between myself and Halper and his Turkish assistant, who had lured me to London to spy on me. The same day—and here things get incredibly weird—that Halper met me in London, the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited me to their offices to meet with diplomats.
“I have never knowingly met a Russian official in my life. However, while I was in the campaign, I had an incredible amount of interactions with British diplomats, to the extent that they personally delivered Theresa May’s letter to me about Trump when he was elected President. I’m not sure why they were around me as much as they were, no idea why Stefan Halper lured me to London for the meeting, but it’s impossible that the British had no idea about what was going on.”
Papadopoulos put out several tweets in the week preceding this interview, including (spellings are maintained):
Sept. 17: If I am going to be under scrutiny for contacts with a Maltese prof, the fake niece of Putin, and a Russian think tank analyst, then I definitly should also be for my numerous interactions with western intel and diplomats, right?
Sept. 13: While I have never met a Russian official in my life knowingly, the British government liked to meet me quite often throughout the campaign. Including Tobias Ellwood, who was right under Boris Johnson, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sept. 12: Hons: @SenatorBurr and @MarkWarner if I do testify, I think it’s also important for me to detail my interactions with US intelligence officials from US Embassy, London. Gregory Baker and Terrence Dudley. Both wanted to ingratiate themselves in campaign via myself.
Sept. 10: Would be a very very big problem if British intelligence was weopanized against an American citizen.
Sept. 10: The notion that Downer randomly reached out to me just to have a gin and tonic is laughable. Some organization or entity sent him to meet me. For the sake of our republic and the integrity of this investigation, I think it’s time Downer is as exposed as Chrisopher Steele.
Sept. 10: I found it so odd that Downer, who gained notoriety in Australia for wearing women’s fish nets, invited me to “order” me to stop “bothering” his good friend David Cameron. And told me my views were hostile to British interests.
