Report claims FBI ‘spied on Trump’

Donald Trump says reports that the FBI used a female informant to get information out of a Trump aide during the 2016 election campaign could be “bigger than Watergate”.

The New York Times ran a front-page story overnight suggesting the woman was deployed to meet with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, at a London bar as part of the FBI’s investigation into suspected co-ordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
 

“There is a word for this in the English language: spying,” said Brad Parscale, President Trump’s campaign manager for the upcoming election. “For two years, Democrats and their allies in the media have lied to the American people about the Russia collusion hoax, when all along the real scandal was the Obama administration using the Justice Department to spy on a political adversary’s campaign.”

Former Liberal Party minister turned diplomat, Alexander Downer, had a drink with in May 2016 with Papadopoulos where the Trump aide reportedly confessed that the Trump campaign had dirt from the Russians on Hillary Clinton.
 

The Australian high commissioner to the UK reported the interaction, which prompted Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Papadopoulos repeated claims overnight that Mr Downer was an asset for the US.
 

I have been saying it for close to a year. The only collusion was between the Obama WH/CIA/FBI with the U.K./Australia/Italy/Turkey/Ukraine to undermine the campaign and Trump associates who posed a threat to various interests. The ultimate goal was to overthrow Trump.

— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) May 2, 2019

What is the media going to do when congress reveals that Alexander Downer was an asset sent to make contact with me? The old narrative is about to get obliterated. Read my testimony to Congress. They have it all.

— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) May 3, 2019

Next big information coming out: Alexander Downer was an asset sent by US intel to make contact with me. There are transcripts of my meeting with the Clinton errand boy.

— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) May 2, 2019

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has previously dismissed the spying claim.

“The Australian government categorically rejects any allegation that it sought somehow to interfere in the US presidential election,” a DFAT spokesperson said.

The New York Times reported that the woman who had a drink with, who said her name was Azra Turk, was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation.

The paper reported that the FBI sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

The FBI declined to comment.

Mr Trump said the front-page New York Times story could win a “Pulitzer Prize”.
 

I really didn’t want to get in the middle of this.. #KIMMEL #TONIGHT @jimmykimmel @IAMGUILLERMO pic.twitter.com/kbo64exBUa

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) May 2, 2019