Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Entrapping of George Papadopoulos

The FBI on July 31, 2016 after it received word from a Friendly Foreign Government (FFG) (Australian diplomat, Alexander Downing) alleging that in May of 2016, George Papadopoulos (GP)said that the Trump campaign had received an offer from the Russians to release hacked emails detrimental to candidate Clinton and President Obama. This was the "sole predication" for what followed. James Comey asserts that Russian agent was Joseph Mifsud.

This led to the opening of an investigation in August of 2016, Crossfire Hurricane, that looked into allegations that Trump campaign officials were colluding with the Russians to influence the 2016 election. Four individual cases were opened at this time on GP, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn.

The Problem Statement was, " ... to determine whether individuals associated with the Trump campaign are witting of/or coordinating actions with the government of Russia."

All lawful means were approved for use including confidential and undercover informants as well as judicial and FISA wiretaps. Counter Intelligence director Priestap approved the measure in consultation with other high ranking FBI officials. The approval was based upon Downing's report, Cyber Intelligence being gathered on the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and information that the Russians were planning to disrupt the 2016 elections. This was a low threshold of predication considering it targeted a potential President of the United States.

The Horowitz Report found that Lisa Page, while present, was not a decision maker. Peter Stryuck was involved at the outset in preparing the formal documentation and opening the four individual investigations. There are many interpretations to a vague and oft quoted email, about an insurance policy. The timing would indicate that it was the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

One of the missing key elements is who offered GP information about the hacked emails. It wasn't The FFG, who turns out to be an Australian Diplomat, Alexander Downing but rather Mifsud.

GP allegedly told Downing that a Maltese Academic, named Joseph MIfsud said that the Russians had "Dirt" on HIllary Clinton. GP denies ever speaking to Mr. Downing about Russia.

The story goes that GP met Mifsud the day he joined the Trump Campaign, whereupon the professor told him about the emails. Mifsud denies any knowledge of the DNC hacking or offering the email dirt to the Trump Campaign. It continues that Mifsud introduced GP to an attractive Russian woman, he said was the niece of Vladamar Putin. The female, later identified as Olga Polonskaya, worked for an Italian wine company and was no relation to the Russian head of State.

What makes this noteworthy is that while Downing is identified as an FFG, no such record of Mifsud appears anywhere in the FBI files. One would assume then that taken with Director Comey's assertion, that Mifsud was a Russian agent, however pundits suggest otherwise; that Mifsud was a freelancer, used under the radar, to assist the FBI in the start-up of counterintelligence investigations.