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Former Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos just tweeted this:

Alexander Downer has made a bizarre, and unfounded, claim and perpetuated a conspiracy theory that the Israelis were the ones who told him to spy on me in London. I think the Israelis would like to clarify this slander to the investigators looking into that clown.

For those who don’t know, Padadopoulos met with a Kremlin-connected Maltese professor named Joseph Mifsud, who told him that the Russian government had dirt on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. Then Papadopoulos met an Australian diplomat named Alexander Downer in a London bar, and told him about what Mifsud had told him. The Australian government then informed the US government about all this, which resulted in the opening of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, which would later be led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. And Papadopoulos ultimately pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with Mifsud.

But my question is, is Papadopoulos right that Alexander Downer has claimed that the Israelis told him to spy on Papadopoulos in London?

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    I can't find anything even close in my searches. I can find Papadopoulos on several occasions making the strange claim that he (Papadopoulos) was targeted because if his support or closeness to Israel. I just read a transcript of his interview with Maria Baritromo which was disturbingly incomprehensible.
    – President James K. Polk
    Dec 8, 2019 at 4:17
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    @JamesReinstateMonicaPolk Yeah, ever since shortly before he went to prison, Papadopoulos has been peddling conspiracy theories about Mifsud being Western intelligence and this all being a “Deep State” plot to get Trump. Those theories will be debunked in the FISA IG report due tomorrow.
    – Keshav Srinivasan
    Dec 8, 2019 at 14:27
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    A convicted lier is making a statement about someone else statement without providing a source. Questions to his tweet about "when and where" are unanswered. Also Papadopoulos is the one who insist on Downer "spying". While being "played" by Papadopoulos.
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Dec 9, 2019 at 10:45
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    @KDog I’ve read the IG report, and it has absolutely no mention of Mifsud ever being a US intelligence asset or ever working for the FBI. On the contrary, it says “The FBI's Delta files contain no evidence that Mifsud has ever acted as an FBI CHS [confidential human source]” (page 312). There was an FBI CHS mentioned on page 313 who was let go in 2011 for “questionable allegiances to the targets”, if that’s who you’re referring to, but that is definitely not Mifsud, who as demonstrated in the quote above has never worked as an FBI CHS. The FBI CHS referred to on page 313 is Stefan Halper.
    – Keshav Srinivasan
    Dec 13, 2019 at 21:53
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    @KDog And it wasn’t a sham investigation at all. It was a legitimate investigation prompted by Papadopoulos’ conversation with Mifsud. The IG found that the investigation was properly predicated and that there was no evidence that any political bias motivated the decision to open it.
    – Keshav Srinivasan
    Dec 13, 2019 at 21:54

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