Loose Lips: How George Papadopoulos Revealed Russian Secrets
This article covers how Trump Foreign Policy Advisor George Papadopoulos informed an Australian Diplomat and the Greek Foreign Minister that the Russians possessed emails related to Hillary Clinton and chronicles his attempts to arrange a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
It is the part three in the series “Mysterious Misfits: the 2016 Trump Foreign Policy Team and the Russian Election Interference Campaign.”
While it is not necessary to read previous entries, it is recommended.
The first article covers the establishment of the 2016 Trump Campaign Foreign Policy team and an effort to find Hillary’s “missing emails.”
The second article covers how George Papadopoulos learned that the Russians possessed Hillary Clinton’s emails.
This article is an excerpt from my book, While We Slept: Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of American Democracy, available here.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — While it is an indisputable fact that George Papadopoulos learned that the Russians had stolen emails related to Hillary Clinton prior their public release by Wikileaks, he later claimed to investigators that he could not recall whether he ever mentioned this to anyone on the Trump Campaign.
After a multi-year investigation, Senate Intelligence Committee concluded: “The Committee could not determine if Papadopoulos informed anyone on the Trump Campaign of the information, though the Committee finds it implausible that Papadopoulos did not do so.”
Nonetheless, we do know that, amidst his efforts to organize a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which will be chronicled here, Papadopoulos did see fit to mention this remarkable fact to several foreigners.
The Papadopoulos-Alexander Downer Meeting in Kensington
While there is no documentary evidence that shows Papadopoulos brought up his knowledge that the Russians possessed “dirt” on Clinton during these interactions with campaign officials and various contacts from Russia following his meeting with Mifsud, the subject did come up during a fateful meeting on May 10th between Papadopoulos and an Australian diplomat named Alexander Downer.
The sequence of events that led Papadopoulos to meet with Downer began on April 19th, 2016, when Christian Cantor, a Political Counsellor at the Israeli Embassy to the UK, introduced Papadopoulos to his girlfriend Erika Thompson. Thompson served as a Political Counsellor to the Australian High Commission in London.
After exchanging emails, Papadopoulos and Thompson met for the first time on April 26th, hours after the meeting with Mifsud at the Andaz during which he learned about the Russian “dirt.”
There is no indication that Papadopoulos mentioned his meeting with Mifsud to Thompson at this time. A few days after their initial meeting, Papadopoulos made a small splash in the international press that raised his profile in London.
In a May 4th interview with The Times of London, Papadopoulos was quoted as saying that then British Prime Minister David Cameron should apologize to Trump, or risk the special relationship, after calling comments he made about barring Muslim travel to the United States, and about Europe’s challenges with its large Muslim immigrant populations, as “divisive, stupid and wrong.”
“You are in real hot water with the campaign over your comments to the British press,” Sam Clovis wrote in an email with the subject Call ME ASAP, despite the fact that Papadopoulos had received the go ahead from Hope Hicks to give the interview. “You need to call me asap. No more discussion with any press until you hear otherwise or have spoken to me about your current situation. Nothing goes out without approval of New York. Period.”
Two days later, on May 6th, email records indicate that Papadopoulos and Thompson met again, though there are no records of what they discussed.
On May 9th, Papadopolous received an email from Thompson which thanked him for the meeting and asked if he was still interested in meeting her boss Alexander Downer, suggesting Papadopoulos “grab a drink with him tomorrow? Maybe around 6?”
It was decided that Thompson, Papadopoulous and Downer would meet the next day, May 10th, at the Kensington Wine Rooms.
Alexander Downer, who has been described as a pro-Monarchist with politics to the right of Margaret Thatcher, was an Australian diplomat and former head of the country’s main conservative political party who came from a political family.
Sir John Downer, his grandfather, had served as the Premier of South Australia before joining the Australian Federal Senate in 1901. His father, Alick Downer, served in the cabinet of a conservative government and later was knighted.
To the great confusion of later American readers and commentators, Alexander Downer was briefly the head of the Australian Liberal Party, which was actually a conservative party as the American usage of “liberal” to mean “left wing” was not something that was done in Australia at that time. Downer’s stint as Liberal Party leader was short, and he eventually became Australia’s Foreign Minister and spent the rest of his career working as a diplomat.
Papadopoulos, Thompson and Downer met in the late afternoon on the 10th. Several details related to this meeting are disputed, and inexplicably the report produced by the Special Council mistakenly claims it took place on May 6th. They may have confused Papadopoulos’ meeting on May 6th with Thompson with his later meeting on the 10th where Downer was present.
Additionally, the amount of alcohol imbibed has been disputed. Papadopoulos initially said that he had three gin and tonics and felt intoxicated, but later would suggest that he and Downer only had one drink, a claim that was echoed by Downer himself.
Despite these curious inconsistencies, these are the facts we know. George Papadopoulos, Erika Thompson and Alexander Downer met at the Kensington Wine Bar on May 10th, 2016. The Bar was a short distance away from Downer’s residence in Hyde Park.
Over Gin and Tonics, how many remains unclear, Downer at some point asked Papadopoulos whether he thought Trump would win the election. After affirming that he did, Papadopoulos told Downer, in what he perceived to be an offhand remark, that Russia possessed “damaging” material on Hillary Clinton and was prepared to release it publicly and the final stages of the election.
Papadopoulos did not seem to treat this revelation, which he didn’t refer to as “dirt” or mention that they took the form of emails, as being particularly groundbreaking, nor did Downer appear to have either.
In a report Downer sent to the Australian Foreign Ministry in Canberra describing his meeting with the young Trump foreign policy advisor, written as per his regular diplomatic duties, Downer didn’t bother to mention Papadopoulos’ claim of the Russian’s possessing damaging material related to Clinton until midway through the report.
Following the public release of DNC related emails later in the Summer, however, Downer’s report was submitted to the FBI used as a predicate to open its investigation into the Trump campaign’s links with Russia during the campaign.
A Potential Trump Moscow Trip and Papadopoulos Meets with Pro-Putin Greek Officials
Following his fateful encounter with Alexander Downer, Papadopolous resumed his correspondence with the Maltese Professor Joseph Mifsud. As covered in the previous entry, Mifsud had revealed to Papadopoulos that the Russians possessed Hillary Clinton’s emails and wanted to use them to help the Trump Campaign.
On May 13th, Mifsud sent him a long email in which he proposed to act as a Trump campaign surrogate and a liaison to European leaders.
In the first of ten numbered points he laid out, others of which included writing op-eds on behalf of Trump and introducing him to his contacts across the continent, Mifsud wrote that he would “will continue to liaise through you with the Russian counterparts in terms of what is needed for a high level meeting of Mr. Trump with the Russian Federation.”
There is no evidence that Papadopoulos pursued Mifsud’s proposals beyond his ongoing communications in Russia.
The day following Mifsud’s email, however, Papadopoulos reached out again to Corey Lewandowski, writing that “[t]he Greek and Cypru governments, the EU Parliament and Russian governments have also relayed to me that they are interested in hosting Mr. Trump.” Papadopolos forwarded the email to Sam Clovis the next day.
In internal campaign communications, on May 15th Clovis emailed Lewandowski and, among other points, wrote “[s]till working on the ins and outs of going to Russia as a candidate.”
Clovis, who it must be remembered was subject to a criminal referral by the Senate Intelligence Committee for lying under oath, later claimed that this reference was unrelated to Papadopoulos’s email from the day earlier, but was rather related to other internal discussions that were taking place in the wider context of a foreign trip by Trump to Europe.
Both the Committee and this author find Clovis’ later denials to be without credibility. The documentary evidence points to the fact that the Trump campaign was actively considering a trip to Russia.
Alexander Downer was not the only foreign diplomat who George Papadopoulos told about Mifsud’s revelation that the Russians possessed damaging materials on Hillary Clinton.
On May 17th, a week after his meeting with Downer, Papadopoulos traveled to his ancestral homeland in Greece. The next day he emailed Lewandowski, writing that he had been “invited to meet with the Greek foreign minister later this week in Athens (he is an old acquaintance of mine)” and asked if there was “[a]ny message you want me to send Greece from the campaign? (they are hoping Mr. Trump wins and are planning to extend an invite to Mr. Trump when I see the foreign minister).”
After Lewandowski didn’t appear to respond, he email Clovis a similar message and was told there was no official message to report to Greece, but to report back what he heard.
On May 21st, Papadopoulos emailed Paul Manafort, writing that he was scheduled to meet with the Greek Foreign and Defense Ministers and the the Greek government was planning to send an “official invitation for Mr. Trump to visit Greece sometime should his schedule allow.”
He continued, “[r]egarding the below message, Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have [sic] been reaching out to me to discuss. I thought it would be prudent to send to you …. I am free to discuss if you are free.”
Manafort, who had been replaced Lewandowski and Campaign Chairman two days earlier, and who had met with GRU Officer Konstantin Kilimnik less than two weeks before that in New York, forwarded Papadopoulous’ email to Rick Gates and wrote, “We need someone to communicate that DT [Donald Trump] is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.”
Papadopoulos does not appear to have been informed of Manafort’s desire “not to send any signal,” the actual meaning of which remains unclear to this day.
On May 24th, he resumed his correspondence with Timofeev, asking him if he had been contacted by the Trump campaign. When Timofeev explained that he had not, Papadopoulos attempted to arrange a phone call with Timofeev. While the two ultimately exchanged six emails, it’s unknown whether they spoke on the phone while Papadopoulos was in Greece.
Greece was then under the leadership of the Syriza political party, an ideologically populist left/nationalist organization also known as the Coalition of the Radical Left-Progressive Alliance.
Syriza was infamous across Europe for it’s close connections to the Putin regime. Then Greek Prime Minister and Syriza leader Alex Tspiras, was an opponent of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Alexis Papachelas, editor of the Greek daily Kathimerini, met with Papadopoulos during his stay in Greece and later wrote, “[h]is manner was that of a second rate actor in a political thriller. Every so often, he would lower his voice so as not to be overheard or drop hints of major contacts, mainly in Israel, but also in Egypt and Cyprus. He also insinuated having some kind of close connection to the Israeli energy firm Noble.”
One of the first individuals Papadopoulos met while in Greece was Defense Minister Panogiotis “Panos” Kammenos, noted for his many connections to Russia and outspoken sympathy towards Putin.
By odd coincidence, Kemmenos had been in Washington, DC attending a meeting of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on the day Papadopoulos met Trump during a meeting of the campaign foreign policy advisors.
Since becoming Defense Minister in 2015, Kammenos had been an advocate of closer military ties to Russia. Kammenos was an associate of, and attended a wedding in 2015 held by, the Russian Orthodox Billionaire Konstantin Malofyev (also spelled Malofeev).
Malofyev was an important figure linking pro-Russian militants in Ukraine to the political establishment in Moscow and who propagated the lie that the West was behind the shooting down of flight MH17.
He is the founder of Tsargrad, a monarchist political movement and Russian Orthodox, pro-Putin television station formed during a congress of the Double Headed Eagle Society in Moscow.
The Russian Eurasianist and neo-fascist Aleksandr Dugin has been described as the “mastermind” behind Tsargrad’s ideology.
Malofyev is also known to have links with Marine Le Pen in France and US Republican Senator Rand Paul.
Papadopoulos reportedly got buzzed drinking ouzo with Kammenos, who complained to him, probably correctly, that President Obama and US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter thought he was a Russian stooge.
Following his bout of drinking with Kammenos, Papadopoulos met with the Egyptian Ambassador to Greece, which was an early step in his ultimately facilitating a meeting between Trump and Egypian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi later in September.
On May 26th, Papadopoulos met with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. Kotzias, who was once a Piraeus University professor, had also cultivated a relationship with Alexandre Dugin during his various visits to Moscow. In 2013, Kotzias invited Dugin to Piraeus University to speak on how Orthodox Christianity could unite Greeks and Russians.
Papadopoulos and Kotzias discussed geopolitics over fruit and coffee. In a remarkable coincidence, Vladimir Putin was scheduled to arrive in Greece for high-level meetings with Greek government officials the very next day.
During his meeting with Papadopooulos, Kotzias pointed this out by stating that “tomorrow Putin will be sitting right where you are sitting.”
The remark supposedly took Papadopoulos by surprise, leading to the first instance he could later “recall” in which he mentioned the information he had learned from Mifsud.
“I heard the Russians have Clinton’s emails,” Papadopoulos said.
“[D]on’t tell this to anyone,” Kotzias, who didn’t appear shocked by the news, responded in Greek.
Papadopoulos interpreted his response to mean that Kotzias already knew this information. He claims to have never brought the matter up again. When Putin arrived in Athens the next day he was greeted by Kammenos.
On May 29th, Papadopoulos emailed Sam Clovis, writing that Kammenos was “willing to make a private trip to NY to meet Mr. Trump (or in Athens).”
He further told Clovis that Foreign Minister Kotzias “wants to invite Mr. Trump to Athens for an official trip.”
Papadopoulos further wrote that he “[w]anted to send you some messages I received from ministers/president of Greece. /just met with the Greek president. They are all very excited for Mr. Trump, hope he wins and if he passes through Athens anytime, all doors here are open for him.”
Starting on June 1st, Papadopoulos renewed his bid to set up a Trump trip to Moscow and connect Trump campaign officials with his Russian contacts. “Do you want to have a call about this topic with Russia or is it off the table for the time being?” Papadopulos wrote to Corey Lewandoski. “Wasn’t sure if we were following up with it.”
“I have the Russian MFA asking me if Mr. Trump is interested in visiting Russia at some point,” Papadopoulos wrote to Clovis on the same day in an email with the subject line Messages from Russia. “Wanted to pass this info along to you for you to decide what’s best to do with it and what message I should send (or to ignore).”
By June 11th, Papadopoulos was again corresponding with Ivan Timofeev. “Dear Ivan,” he wrote, “I am free to come visit Russia if there is interest.”
“Just landed from Beijing,” Timofeev replied the next day. “Visit to Moscow is an excellent idea. Will be at [S]kype on Tuesday [June 14th].”
“I am going on holiday tomorrow until morning of June 21,” Papadopoulos replied, “but will do my best to get online. In the meantime, if you see who is interested in meeting in Moscow I can begin preparations to come visit Moscow by the end of the month directly from Thessaloniki.”
He then sent a follow-up message, “I am open to meeting everyone even at the highest level. I think it would be most productive especially before the debates begin… I need to let my boss know who wants to meet with me in Moscow to confirm that’s why I ask.”
“I have got a good reaction from the US desk at the MFA as I told you,” Timofeev wrote back. “But to get higher level the best option would be to have a letter from Mr. Trump about your visit, asking for such meetings.”
On June 16th, Joseph Mifsud sent Papadopoulos an email with the subject urgent contact in which he wrote that he wanted to, “touch base and have a catch up.”
After explaining that he needed some help answering queries from several Italian newspapers, Mifsude wrote, “On the 27/28 I am at the Hague for the high level internal annual meeting of the ECFR and on the topic is [sic] the US presidential elections. I would like to have a briefing from you on Mr. Trump’s foreign policy to be able to argue ‘your’ corner.”
Three days after that, on June 19th, Papadopoulos resumed his communications with senior Trump campaign officials regarding a trip to Russia. “The Russian ministry of foreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump is unable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it for meetings?”
Papadopoulos wrote, somewhat sloppily, to Corey Lewandowski, on what turned out to be his final day working in an official capacity for the campaign. “I am willing to make the trip off the record if it’s in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people. I’m currently in Greece so not far. Or if someone else wants to go, just wanted to pass this along so I know who to forward the message to.”
While any further communications between Papadopoulos and Clovis on this matter are not publicly available, his subsequent communications with Mifsud and Timofeev, Papadopoulos suggest that there had been some consideration of, if not Trump himself, having Trump campaign officials meet with Russian officials.
Between July 5th-9th, Papadopoulos exchanged over a dozen emails attempting to set up a call with Mifsud. It remains unknown whether they spoke during this period.
Regardless of whether they did or not, on July 15th, Papadopoulos emailed Mifsud and proposed that meeting take place in “[A]ugust or September between you, me, Ivan [Timofeev], my two colleagues [Sam Clovis and Walid Phares], members of president [P]utin’s office and the mfa [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] to meet and greet and hold a day of consultations.”
“Because of the time difference I will email you what I have in mind,” Papadopoulos wrote to Timofeev the next day, following-up on the idea he had shared with Mifsud.
“A meeting for August or September in the UK (London) with me and my national chairman, and maybe one other foreign policy advisor and you, members of president putin ‘s office and the mfa to hold a day of consultations and to meet one another. It has been approved from our side. Kindly let me know what else you need and dates that work for everyone.”
The next day, July 15th, Papadopoulos was in Washington, DC attending a meeting of the Transatlantic Parliamentary Group (TAG) on Counterrorism, an organization that was co-chaired by fellow Trump foreign policy advisor Walid Phares.
Phares had earlier warned Papadopoulos that TAG participants were “very nervous about Russia. So be aware.”
Papadopoulos sat next to Sam Clovis at the meeting. Despite the fact that Clovis and Phares later denied to the FBI having discussed Russia at the event, Papadopoulos recalled that they had discussed the possibility that the three of them might arrange to meet with Russian officials abroad.
Notes Papadopoulos kept at the time, and that were later analyzed by the FBI, contain references to a “September” meeting in “London” with individuals related to the “Office of Putin.”
The notes further suggest that Clovis, Phares and Papadopoulos, “Walid/Sam me” would take the meeting without the official backing from the campaign, “no official letter/no message from Trump.”
Between July 25th-27th, Papadopoulos exchanged nine emails with Mifsud attempting to set up a call. Once again, it is not definitively known whether any call between them in this timeframe took place, though it appears that one did from their subsequent correspondence.
On the 27th, Papadopoulos emailed Clovis and Phares, writing that Mifsud was willing to introduce “us with the UK officials and other governments for consultation in Europe and Russia.”
Papadopoulos described Mifsud as a “colleague” whose organization the London Academy of Diplomacy worked closely with Boris Johnson’s Office.
In 2017, Mifsud was photographed standing next to Boris Johnson and a British education executive with links to the London Academy of Diplomacy named Prasenjit Kumar Singh.
Presenjit has described Mifsud as an “old” friend and was also friends with Olga Polonskaya on Facebook.
“Excellent call,” Papadopoulos wrote to Mifsud on July 27th. “We are looking forward to the letter detailing that the London Academy of Diplomacy would like to host the [T]rump team, and officials from the UK and Russia (separately). Confirmed participants.from our side include: Walid Phares, foreign policy advisor, Sam Clovis, head of policy and George Papadopoulos, foreign policy advisor.”
“As mentioned,” Mifsud wrote to Papadopoulos four days later, “I wish to be officially accredited and invited to follow Mr. Trump’s campaign (with an on the ground — US trail — for a period to be defined with the aim of presenting the European (the extended EU- UK, Balkans, etc.), Russian and Mediterranean media, think tanks, institutions, and public opinion (blogs, etc.) with an [sic] realistic view of your campaign, with particular reference to Foreign Policy (and all the other pertinent issues. I would also need to be briefed periodically on all foreign affairs issues pertinent to this role. This would justify my academic and professional interest. An agreement on this must precede all other actions.”
“I will organize in London and in other European capitals meetings with individuals; think tanks, media and foreign policy advisors from countries in Europe (wider Europe), UK, the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and the Russian Federation (the meeting that we have discussed would be under this umbrella — the focus to these meetings would be the clear and specific Foreign Policy issues being put forward by Mr. Trump during his campaign.”
It remains unknown whether Papadopoulos passed on Mifsud’s request anyone on the Trump campaign or whether Mifsud himself had any contact with the campaign.
On August 10th, Mifsud introduced Papadapoulos to his friend, personal lawyer and business partner, the aforementioned Stephan Roh. Exactly why he did so, and why at that time, remains a mystery.
Mifsud described Roh as “a Swiss Lawyer with offices in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, the Gulf and China, with whom I have been collaborating for some time on major international projects including Link Campus that you have visited this year.”
“Joseph reminded me that you might want to speak about a trip to Moscow,” Roh wrote to Papadopoulos on August 15th, part of nine messages exchanged between them. “[I]t would be my pleasure to give some advice.”
It remains unknown whether they ever spoke.
On the same day, August 15th, Papadopoulos sent an email to Clovis with subject Trip abroad (you and I). “Have had requests from UK, Greek, Italian and even Russian government for closed door workshops/consultations abroad.”
“I wanted to know,” Papadopoulos continued, “if there is still interest for the two or three of us to go on that trip? If not I’ll let them know and we can potentially hold a private [S]kype call. All meetings can potentially be done in London at the London Academy of Diplomacy.”
“I just don’t see any way for me to travel before the election,” Clovis replied on the same day. “I have too much to do that requires me to be in the states. I would encourage you and Walid to make the trips, if it is feasible.”
“Unfortunately, our national co-chairman, Sam Clovis, informed me today he cannot travel abroad at this stage of the election,” Papadopoulos wrote to Mifsud. “However, will now see if Walid [Phares] can make it and he is supposed to tell me today.”
By this time, any Trump campaign connections to Russia were becoming toxic. The Washington Post had already reported by mid-June that the Democratic National Committee had been subject to a cyber attack and the presumed perpetrators were hackers linked to the Russian Government.
In late July, the first Wikileaks dump had only heightened suspicions.
On August 16th, conversations were taking place within the Trump campaign between Stephen Miller, Hope Hicks and Rick Dearborn regarding replacing several members of the foreign policy team, including Papadapoulos.
Despite these discussions, and his later problematic testimony to the contrary, only a few weeks earlier on July 25th, Clovis had described Papadopoulos, along with Carter Page, as “great assets” in an email to Paul Manafort, Jard Kushner, Trump supporter and former RNC finance chairman Elliott Brioidy and Donald Trump Jr.
The next entry will describe George Papadopoulos’ interactions with Sergei Millian, a man with suspected connections to Russian intelligence, and his final days on the Trump Campaign.