Joseph Mifsud, a mysterious professor who was central to the events that allegedly kicked off the FBI’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election, told FBI agents in February 2017 that he never had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and therefore never told Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos that he did.
Further, recently declassified notes from the FBI’s interview of Mifsud reveal the bureau didn’t seem to consider him a “Russian spy,” as was alleged by the media and Democrats throughout the years spent suggesting Mifsud was such. Ex-FBI Director James Comey even called Mifsud a “Russian agent” in a May 2019 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/james-comey-no-treason-no-coup-just-lies--and-dumb-lies-at-that/2019/05/28/45f8d802-8175-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html">op-ed</a> for The Washington Post.
Yet the FBI seemingly let this individual provide answers in a short interview and never charged him with any crimes relating to Russian interference in the election. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russian narrative claimed Mifsud told Papadopoulos in April 2016 that the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton, referring to hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. The FBI’s “302” file on its interview with Mifsud, however, states that the Maltese professor said he had “no advance knowledge Russia was in possession of emails from the Democratic National Committee and, therefore, did not make any offers or proffer any information” to Papadopoulos.
Mifsud told the FBI that he and Papadopoulos “spoke about cyber security and hacking as a larger issue,” and suggested Papadopoulos “must have misunderstood their conversation” to claim that Mifsud offered negative information on Clinton.
An attorney on Twitter who uses the handle Techno Fog <a href="https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1300998748722601984">explained</a> that Mueller’s report “played up Mifsud’s ‘connections to Russia,’” yet the FBI didn’t ask the professor about these alleged connections and didn’t appear to follow up on any additional questions raised during the investigation. Further, the Mueller report alleged that Papadopoulos lied to the FBI about whether he was working for the Trump campaign when he met with Mifsud in the United Kingdom &#8212; the meeting where Mifsud allegedly referenced dirt on Clinton &#8212; and that this lie impeded the bureau’s ability to question Mifsud effectively. Except, as Techno Fog pointed out, Mifsud himself told the FBI, according to the 302, that Papadopoulos was with the Trump campaign when the two met.
The Mueller report also suggested that Papadopoulos’ lies prevented them from figuring out Mifsud’s connection in the whole narrative, yet the documents released today make clear the FBI never followed-up with Mifsud and barely asked him any questions during his interview.
In May 2019, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) sent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/theres-glaring-contradiction-mueller-report-ashe-schow">a letter</a> to the U.S. State Department and the CIA suggesting that “if Mifsud is the dangerous liaison Mueller made him out to be, then many more Western politicians have been compromised, as many have had their own contact with the professor.”
“Alternatively, if Mifsud is not in fact a counterintelligence threat, then that would cast doubt on the Special Counsel’s fundamental depiction of him and his activities, and raise questions about the veracity of the Special Counsel’s statements and affirmations,” Nunes wrote.
“It should be noted that the Special Counsel declined to charge Mifsud with any crime even though, to justify seeking a prison sentence for Papadopoulos, the Special Counsel claimed Papadopoulos’ untruthful testimony ‘undermined investigators’ ability to challenge the Professor [Mifsud] or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States,’” Nunes continued. “Furthermore, it’s still a mystery how the FBI knew to ask Papadopoulos specifically about Hillary Clinton’s emails, on multiple occasions throughout 2016-17 before having interviewed Mifsud, if the FBI hadn’t already somehow received this information directly or indirectly from Mifsud himself.”

Mueller Testifies

Central Figure In Russia-Collusion Narrative Said He Never Offered Any Russian ‘Dirt’ On Hillary Clinton, FBI Interview Reveals

2016 Election

Donald Trump

George Papadopoulos

Robert Mueller

Russia

The Department of Justice has released a memo written on August 2, 2017 that outlined the scope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election. The investigation concluded that the campaign did not, in fact, collude with Russia.
The newly released document sheds some light on the scope of the investigation with regards to five individuals who were targeted: Carter Page, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and a fifth person whose name was redacted. The memo was released thanks to a request from Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), which Attorney General William Barr granted. Barr provided an unclassified version of the “Scope Memo,” which can be viewed <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/05/07/doj-releases-memo-outlining-scope-of-robert-muellers-probe/">here</a>, thanks to The New York Post.
The original memo was written by Rod Rosenstein while he was the Acting Attorney General and noted that he had issued an order on May 17, 2017 that appointed Mueller as special counsel and authorized him to conduct an investigation that had been authorized by then-FBI Director James Comey during testimony to the House Intelligence committee on March 20, 2017. The May 17, 2017 order, Rosenstein wrote, was worded in such a way to “permit its public release without confirmed specific investigations involving specific individuals.” The August 2, 2017 memo that was just released provided specifics.
The memo outlines the allegations that “were within the scope of the investigation,” including “Allegations that Carter Page committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the United States, in violation of United States law.” As we now know, not only did Page not collude with Russia, but the FBI <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ig-report-here-are-the-17-specific-inaccuracies-and-omissions-in-the-fbis-fisa-warrants-against-carter-page">left out</a> key exculpatory evidence to continue targeting him through FISA warrants.
The memo further outlines the allegations against Manafort, Papadopoulos, and Flynn:
Allegations that Paul Manafort:
<ul>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government&#8217;s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the United States, in violation of United States law;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes arising out of payments he received from the Ukrainian government before and during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes arising out of his receipt of loans from a bank whose Chief Executive Officer was then seeking a position in the Trump Administration;</li>
</ul>
Allegations that George Papadopoulos:
<ul>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government&#8217;s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the United States, in violation of United States law;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by acting as an unregistered agent of the government of Israel;</li>
</ul>
Allegations that Michael Flynn:
<ul>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by engaging in conversations with Russian government officials during the period of the Trump transition;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by making false statements to the FBI when interviewed about his contacts with the Russian government;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by failing to report foreign contacts and income on a Fonn SF-86 that he completed in anticipation of his being selected to serve as the National Security Adviser to President Trump;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by acting as an unregistered agent for the government of Turkey</li>
</ul>
All collusion claims against these individuals were unfounded, and recently released information appears to show that Flynn was set up in order to get him fired.
Following the release of the memo, Graham said it showed the “entire Mueller investigation was illegitimate to begin with,” according to a transcript <a href="https://cnsnews.com/article/washington/susan-jones/graham-declassified-memo-shows-entire-mueller-investigation-was">from CNS News</a>.

Michael Flynn

DOJ Releases Memo Explaining Why Carter Page, Michael Flynn, And Others Were Targeted In Mueller Probe

Carter Page

Paul Manafort

A recently released Department of Justice Inspector General report, examining the role of the FBI in efforts to wiretap and investigate the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Trump 2016 transition team, and whether the FBI acted improperly when petitioning the FISA courts to spy on the effort without a warrant, revealed that the FBI had informants within the Trump campaign itself.
<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/20/fbi-had-spies-inside-trump-campaign-ig/">The Washington Times reports</a> that the FBI informants, who tried to get close to Trump campaign aides Carter Page and George Papadopolous, came up empty despite repeated attempts to bait both Page and Papadopolous into connecting with Russian operatives who, the informants told the pair, could provide &#8220;incriminating&#8221; Hillary Clinton emails.
&#8220;The report discloses that the FBI dispatched against Trump allies multiple unnamed FBI informants known as confidential human sources (CHS). The most publicized was Stefan Halper, a longtime Washington national security figure and Cambridge University professor,&#8221; the outlet reported. &#8220;He ingratiated himself to George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, while also attempting to engage with a senior Trump campaign official in New York.&#8221;
The Inspector General reports that the FBI informants recorded entire conversations with both Papadopolous and Page, but that the content of these recordings could be considered evidence that neither aide engaged with Russian operatives: &#8220;Mr. Halper recorded conversations that could be seen as exculpatory.&#8221;
The Inspector General also &#8220;rapped&#8221; the FBI, the Times reports, for failing to include the recorded conversations in petitions sent to the FISA courts requesting the warrantless wiretaps. Such an error makes the petitions incomplete, he said, and biased the court towards granting the FBI permission to spy on Trump operatives.
Both Papadopolous and Page had contact with Halper, who introduced them into networks that featured Russian operatives, including a one Joseph Mifsud, who tipped off Papadopolous that the Russians might be in possession of &#8220;incriminating&#8221; Clinton emails that could ultimately help Trump win the election. Papadopolous spoke about the tip to an Australian ambassador, who eventually told the FBI, but, apparently, Papadopolous didn&#8217;t follow up on the tip personally, never asking the Kremlin &#8212; or directing the Trump campaign to place a call to the Russian government &#8212; to get a look at the emails in question.
&#8220;According to special counsel Robert Mueller,&#8221; the Times reports, &#8220;no evidence ever surfaced that Papadopoulos acted on the Mifsud tip: He didn’t try to obtain emails and never told the campaign. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about when he began talking to Mr. Mifsud. A judge sentenced him to 14 days in jail. He now is running for Congress in California.&#8221;
The IG report ultimately determined that, while the warrantless wiretaps were probably justified &#8212; at least in the case of Carter Page &#8212; the FBI&#8217;s shoddy FISA applications greatly tarnished the FISA process and the entire investigation.
The initial FBI actions eventually gave rise to the program now known as &#8220;Crossfire Hurricane&#8221; &#8212; a full effort, on the part of the Obama Administration&#8217;s DOJ, to determine whether the Trump campaign and Trump transition team had colluded with Russian officials to impact the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. That investigation came up empty. A subsequent Special Counsel investigation, led by Robert Mueller, also came up empty.
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a second Inspector General investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane. That report is in progress but could be released early next year.

SHOCK: Inspector General Report Reveals FBI Had Informants Inside The Trump Campaign

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos said on Sunday that he is traveling to Greece to bring back thousands of dollars that he believes a U.S. intelligence asset gave him in order to entrap him.
Papadopoulos made the revelation during an interview with Fox News&#8217; Maria Bartiromo on &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures,&#8221; during which he said that he gave the money to his lawyer to keep in a safe because he believed something was off about it.
&#8220;I was very happy to see that Devin Nunes brought that up,&#8221; Papadopoulos said, speaking of last week&#8217;s congressional hearing involving special counsel Robert Mueller, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/papadopoulos-heads-to-greece-to-retrieve-10k-in-safe-as-senate-investigators-request-bills">Fox News</a> reported. &#8220;A man named Charles Tawil gave me this money [in Israel] under very suspicious circumstances. A simple Google search about this individual will reveal he was a CIA or State Department asset in South Africa during the &#8217;90s and 2000s. I think around the time when Bob Mueller was the director of the FBI.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">BREAKING NEWS: <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GeorgePapa19</a> just told me he is going back to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Greece?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Greece</a> to retrieve the $10-k that was dropped in his lap as part of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FBI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FBI</a>&#8216;s entrapment. It&#8217;s in a safe in Greece. It&#8217;s marked bills and the intel committees want to see it. <a href="https://twitter.com/MorningsMaria?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MorningsMaria</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxBusiness?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxBusiness</a>
— Maria Bartiromo (@MariaBartiromo) <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo/status/1155495023875678213?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;So, I have my theory of what that was all about,&#8221; Papadopoulos added. &#8220;The money, I gave it to my attorney in Greece because I felt it was given to me under very suspicious circumstances. And upon coming back to the United States I had about seven or eight FBI agents rummaging through my luggage looking for money.&#8221;
Papadopoulos called the incident a &#8220;setup&#8221; by the &#8220;FBI likely, or even the special counsel&#8217;s office&#8221; to ensnare him in a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
&#8220;I actually want Congress, [Attorney General Bill] Barr, [DOJ Inspector General Michael] Horowitz, and [U.S. Attorney John] Huber to review the bills because I still have the bills and I think they are marked,&#8221; Papadopoulos continued. &#8220;These bills that are still in Athens right now must be examined by the investigators because I think they are marked and they&#8217;re going to go all the way back to DOJ, under the previous FBI under [James] Comey, and even the Mueller team.&#8221;
Last week, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dojs-russia-probe-review-focusing-on-tapes-of-talks-with-trump-aide-sources">Fox News</a> reported that the DOJ&#8217;s investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation is focusing on transcripts of recordings from a government official who met with Papadopoulos overseas in 2016.
The transcripts reportedly contain &#8220;exculpatory&#8221; evidence that &#8220;was not presented in subsequent applications for surveillance warrants, according to two sources familiar with the review.&#8221;
The source that gave Fox News the information said: &#8220;I think it’s the smoking gun.&#8221;

Papadopoulos Going To Greece To Retrieve Entrapment Payment From Alleged U.S. Intel Asset, He Says

Trump Administration

On Fox News Sunday, former House Oversight Committee chairman Trey Gowdy told host Maria Bartiromo that an unreleased FBI transcript of a conversation withTrump campaign associate George Papadopoulos could prove to be a &#8220;game-changer&#8221; for public perception about the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
As reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trey-gowdy-fbi-withheld-game-changer-transcript-material-from-fisa-court">Washington Examiner,</a> Gowdy made the comments during a conversation about the ongoing investigations into how the Trump-Russia probe first started, including the securing of FISA warrants and the intelligence community&#8217;s contact with Trump associates. Gowdy explained that the FBI creates transcripts of conversations it monitors. One particular transcript, he told Bartiromo, &#8220;has the potential to actually persuade people.&#8221;
The conversation in question involves Papadopoulos, whose attempt to get &#8220;dirt&#8221; on Hillary Clinton was one of the pretexts for the FBI&#8217;s investigation into the Trump campaign. During Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation, which found no collusion, the Trump associate pleaded guilty to lying about a conversation about trying to get damaging information on Trump&#8217;s opponent.
Gowdy said it&#8217;s time for congressional investigators to start asking some questions about what exactly went down in conversations with Papadopoulos. They should ask for &#8220;the transcripts, if any exist, between the informants and the telephone calls to George Papadopoulos,&#8221; he said, adding, suggestively, &#8220;some of us have been fortunate enough to know whether or not those transcripts exist.&#8221;
&#8220;Republican lawmakers who have seen the relevant documents believe exculpatory evidence related to Papadopoulos was not included in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page,&#8221; the Washington Examiner reports. (<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trey-gowdy-fbi-withheld-game-changer-transcript-material-from-fisa-court">Read the full report here</a>.)
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wtKbb7Pl2F0" width="750"></iframe></div>
Among the recently revealed details about the problematic origins of the investigation into the Trump campaign is some new information about agents&#8217; contact with Papadopoulos. On May 2, <a href="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fbi-sent-investigator-posing-as-assistant-to-meet-with-trump-aide-in-2016/ar-AAAOePQ">The New York Times</a> reported that the FBI used a female undercover investigator, going by the fake name of Azra Turk, in what proved to be a failed attempt to draw out &#8220;collusion&#8221;-related information from the Trump associate.
&#8220;The conversation at a London bar in September 2016 took a strange turn when the woman sitting across from George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, asked a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?&#8221; the Times reported. &#8220;The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign&#8217;s links to Russia.&#8221;
&#8220;The day after meeting Ms. Turk, Mr. Papadopoulos met briefly with Mr. Halper at a private London club, and Ms. Turk joined them,&#8221; the Times reported. &#8220;The two men agreed to meet again, arranging a drink at the Sofitel hotel in London&#8217;s posh West End. During that conversation, Mr. Halper immediately asked about hacked emails and whether Russia was helping the campaign, according to Mr. Papadopoulos&#8217;s book. Angry over the accusatory questions, Mr. Papadopoulos ended the meeting.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46721/fbi-used-attractive-female-agent-try-get-info-out-james-barrett">FBI Used &#8216;Attractive&#8217; Female Agent To Try To Get Info Out Of Trump Aide</a>

WATCH: Gowdy Discusses ‘Game-Changer’ Evidence On FBI Investigation Of Trump

Trey Gowdy

One of the central figures to the Russian-collusion narrative is Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud. He is the man that helped allegedly jumpstart the counterintelligence investigation into then-candidate Donald Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign when he allegedly told Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos that Russians had &#8220;dirt&#8221; on Hillary Clinton, including her emails.
In Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s final report on the investigation, Mifsud is portrayed as being intimately connected to the Putin regime in Russia. Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have similarly portrayed Mifsud as a &#8220;cutout&#8221; who gave Papadopoulos information on behalf of the Russians in order to influence the 2016 election.
But as Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) wrote in <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/408736136/Nunes-letter-to-CIA-FBI-NSA-and-State-Department">a letter</a> sent to the U.S. State Department and the CIA last Friday, if Mifsud is the dangerous liaison Mueller made him out to be, then many more Western politicians have been compromised, as many have had their own contact with the professor.
&#8220;Alternatively, if Mifsud is not in fact a counterintelligence threat, then that would cast doubt on the Special Counsel&#8217;s fundamental depiction of him and his activities, and raise questions about the veracity of the Special Counsel&#8217;s statements and affirmations,&#8221; Nunes wrote.
&#8220;It should be noted that the Special Counsel declined to charge Mifsud with any crime even though, to justify seeking a prison sentence for Papadopoulos, the Special Counsel claimed Papadopoulos&#8217; untruthful testimony &#8216;undermined investigators&#8217; ability to challenge the Professor [Mifsud] or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States,&#8217;&#8221; Nunes continued. &#8220;Furthermore, it&#8217;s still a mystery how the FBI knew to ask Papadopoulos specifically about Hillary Clinton&#8217;s emails, on multiple occasions throughout 2016-17 before having interviewed Mifsud, if the FBI hadn&#8217;t already somehow received this information directly or indirectly from Mifsud himself.&#8221;
Nunes included in his letter photos of Mifsud with British politician Boris Johnson, member of the Italian military, and a former member of the United Kingdom&#8217;s Joint Intelligence Committee. Mueller&#8217;s report also explains that Mifsud met Papadopoulos at Link Campus University, described as &#8220;a for-profit institution headed by a former Italian government official.&#8221; As Nunes wrote, the report &#8220;omits&#8221; additional information about the university, which a Guardian report cited by Mueller&#8217;s team claimed the school &#8220;had a reputation for being closely connected to some elements within the Italian intelligence services.&#8221; Mifsud, the article quoted someone saying, collaborated regularly with the university.
This contradiction in Mueller&#8217;s report should remind us of another problem with the final report, <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/06/major-report-omission-shows-mueller-either-incompetent-political-hack/">as described by</a> The Federalist&#8217;s Margot Cleveland (full disclosure: I also have a byline at The Federalist). Cleveland pointed out that &#8220;Not once in the 448-page tome does Mueller mention an investigation into whether Russia interfered with the U.S. presidential election by feeding dossier author Christopher Steele misinformation.&#8221; That dossier has been the &#8220;evidence&#8221; for many of the media and Democrats&#8217; claims of collusion between Trump and Russia.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to providing false statements to the FBI when he told him in January 2017 that he had the meeting with Mifsud before he joined the Trump campaign. It was Papadopoulos&#8217; April 26, 2016 meeting with Mifsud &#8212; which he told FBI agents about &#8212; where he learned the Russians allegedly had &#8220;dirt&#8221; on Hillary Clinton. Weeks later, Papadopoulos would tell Australian diplomate Alexander Downer about this gossip, which has been reported as the event that sparked the investigation into the campaign.
The Daily Caller <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/04/nunes-mifsud-papadopoulos/">reported</a> that Papadopoulos has said he never told anyone on Trump&#8217;s campaign about what Mifsud told him, and Mueller&#8217;s report makes clear there&#8217;s no evidence to contradict those claims.

There’s A Glaring Contradiction In The Mueller Report

Devin Nunes

An FBI agent who oversaw both the investigation into Hillary Clinton&#8217;s email server and alleged collusion between President Donald Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign and Russia was in the U.K. at the same time that important events &#8212; which we were told prompted the &#8220;surveillance&#8221; into Trump&#8217;s campaign &#8212; were going on. This would normally be a coincidence, but for some reason, the government didn&#8217;t want us to know that this agent was overseas at this particular time.
The revelations come after Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) released <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5790356/EW-Priestap-Interview-Transcript.pdf">the private testimony</a> between Edward William Priestap, who was the assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division between 2015 and 2018, and congressmen and their staff.
One particular tidbit from this interview was <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/04/11/fbi_mans_testimony_points_to_significant_wrongdoing_beyond_spying.html">recently highlighted</a> by Real Clear Investigations (RCI) (full disclosure: my former employer). Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked Priestap if he traveled overseas and where he went. Whenever Priestap answered where he went, the answer was redacted by government officials in the official transcript. RCI&#8217;s Eric Felten wondered sarcastically what &#8220;exotic destination&#8221; Priestap could have travelled to that would need to be redacted.
The answer, Felten found, was London. While government censors redacted the location from Priestap&#8217;s testimony, they did not redact it in text messages between FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Strzok texted Page on May 4, 2016 that he needed to write a memo but didn&#8217;t &#8220;know that Bill will read it before he gets back from London next week.&#8221;
Why was Priestap in London at this time? He &#8220;went to meet with a foreign partner, foreign government partner.&#8221; Felten explains:
<blockquote>
In other words, almost certainly British intelligence. Not exposing our British partners has been the Justice Department&#8217;s justification for locking up secrets about the beginnings of the Trump investigation. The redactions try and fail to hide that Priestap met repeatedly with his British counterparts in 2016.
</blockquote>
Just before Priestap traveled to London in the spring of 2016, Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud told Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos about the Russians having &#8220;dirt&#8221; on Clinton. Papadopoulos then allegedly relayed this gossip to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer a week later. Both of these events occurred in London.
As Felten points out, The New York Times claimed Australian officials &#8220;did not pass on this new information for two months.&#8221; Felten also notes that &#8220;it is more than passingly curious that Priestap kept going to London when these significant events were occurring.&#8221;
When Jordan asked Priestap why he went to London a second time in the spring of 2016, the ex-FBI official just kept saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m not a liberty&#8221; to discuss the matter.
&#8220;If Priestap could have answered &#8216;no&#8217; without perjuring himself, he could have quickly put this matter to bed,&#8221; Felten wrote. &#8220;His &#8216;I&#8217;m not at liberty&#8217; answers strongly suggest that the Trump-Russia investigation was exactly what his second trip to London was about.&#8221;
This could change the timeline about when the investigation began, or at least call into question how eager the FBI under the Obama administration was to spy on Clinton&#8217;s rival campaign. A young staffer says he was told by someone that the Russians have &#8220;dirt&#8221; on Clinton and the FBI immediately sends a top agent out to investigate? That&#8217;s some thin pretext.

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