Papadopoulos To Tell Congress About Series Of Suspicious Interactions Ahead Of 2016 Election

DC: When former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos testifies Thursday before Congress he hopes to speak with lawmakers about his interactions with nine individuals he believes may have been sent to surveil him during and after the 2016 election.

A lawyer for Papadopoulos listed the nine people in a letter sent Monday to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Some of the names on the list have been widely discussed in the press: Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, FBI informant Stefan Halper, and alleged Steele dossier source Sergei Millian have all popped up during the course of Russiagate.

But Papadopoulos identified five other people — Azra Turk, Aziz Choukri, Charles Tawil, Terrence Dudley and Gregory Baker — whose interactions he now questions.

Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to 14 days in jail on Sept. 7 as part of the special counsel’s investigation, volunteered to speak to a congressional task force investigating the FBI and Department of Justice’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The 31-year-old Chicago native was a key component of the probe. The FBI opened up its investigation in late July 2016 based on information that Downer shared with his Australian counterparts more than two months after he met in London with Papadopoulos. Despite the early interest in the Trump aide, the FBI and special counsel appears not to have found evidence linking him to a conspiracy to collude with Russians.  more here