SMH: Former foreign minister Alexander Downer acted without clearance from Australian officials when he contacted United States diplomats four years ago to raise concerns about potential Russian interference in the US presidential election.
A new memoir by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull reveals that Mr Downer raised his concerns directly with the US embassy in London in July 2016 but had “no authority from Canberra” to do so.
The move was crucial to the launch of an FBI investigation into the Russian support for the election of US President Donald Trump, who dismissed the inquiry as a “witch-hunt” and ordered an inquiry into the affair.
Mr Downer, the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom at the time, met Trump aide George Papadopoulos in London in May 2016 and was told the Russians had “damaging” material on Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.
While Mr Downer mentioned this in a cable to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the information was not acted upon until he later chose to raise it with the deputy at the US embassy in London, Elizabeth Dibble.
In his new memoir, A Bigger Picture, Mr Turnbull says Mr Downer did this without checking with the department.
We’re gonna need more buses. I hope.
That don’t work for me
I don’t believe that he was the only one in the government (theirs or ours) that knew about his ‘acting’ without their knowledge. Apparently, he advised their government, in writing and maybe more than once, about what he had done, or was doing. Their government decided to not take any action on what he provided to them, their having discounted it given as reason. But he also told cia/fbi/state in our country. And they listened. Or maybe they didn’t listen, as they were telling him what to say. But they did something with it, didn’t they?
If they found no merit to his claims, why didn’t they advise our government, seeing it being inundated with charges of collusion and impeachment . They’re a member of ‘5 eyes’ and I’m gonna think they had the responsibility to share that little tidbit of intelligence.
But they didn’t. Or maybe they did tell the folks in dc, and they didn’t listen. It could have happened either way, but with this story being ‘sold,’ they’ll avoid an investigation that would find that out.
I’m astounded by the level of political corruption
While he down there under the bus maybe they could roll it over him a few times!
a Downer from Down Under
Dan Bongino and Paul Solomon have the whole thing spelled
out to a T, but where are the criminal prosecutions?
Information is useless if it does not bring action,