Russia probe a hangover from Downer bar talk

Kensington Wine Room is the polar opposite of a misty park in spy novels where diplomatic trade of information takes place.

Kensington Wine Rooms in London.

Kensington Wine Room is a trendy, noisy and busy drink-nice-wines-by-the-glass kind of place. It’s the polar opposite of a misty park in spy novels where meaty diplomatic trade of information takes place.

And on a night in May 2016 amid copious alcohol, cheese and Spanish meats, the involvement of Australia’s top diplomat in London, Alexander Downer, sparked the chain of events that led to Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential campaign to support Donald Trump.

The New York Times revealed yesterday that Mr Downer, the Australian high commissioner to Britain and Howard government foreign minister for 11 years, chatted with Mr Trump’s young and brash “excellent guy’’ George Papadopoulos in the wine bar, which is a 15-minute walk from Mr Downer’s residence near Hyde Park.

Alexander Downer at Australia House London. Picture: i-Images

It’s uncertain whether Mr Downer drank Mr Papadopoulos under the table, but the Trump campaign aide loosened his lips and opened up to the high commissioner about a dossier of dirt the Russians had on Mr Trump’s Democrat rival, Hillary Clinton.

Mr Downer duly passed the information on to Canberra, which appears to have sat on the intelligence for about two months, perhaps assessing and checking its veracity.

About three weeks before the wine-bar meeting, Mr Papadopoulos had been told Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs Clinton, stolen in an effort to damage her campaign. He had learned this from Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud, who had befriended him and had many high-level Russian contacts.

Australian intelligence officials passed Mr Downer’s information to their US counterparts when leaked Democratic Party emails emerged in August, The New York Times says.

In a statement, the Australian embassy in Washington ­de­clined to provide details about the meeting or confirm it had ­occurred. “As a matter of principle and practice, the Australian government does not comment on matters relevant to active investigations,” the statement said.

Mr Downer’s information, coming from one of America’s most trusted allies, was so alarming it sparked the FBI investigation about Russia’s interference in the election that has developed into the inquiry led by Mr Mueller. Previously, it had been thought the information gathered by former British security expert Christopher Steele — who had compiled details of Russian involvement in electing Mr Trump — was behind the FBI scrutiny, as he was interviewed in October 2016. Mr Papadopoulos was not interviewed until January 2017.

George Papadopoulos in London. Picture: AFP

Although it may have been feasible that Mr Papadopoulos — an energy consultant living in London — and Mr Downer — a former board member for Chinese telecom giant Huawei in Australia — had crossed paths before, the newspaper says the contact came about after an Israeli embassy official introduced Mr Papadopoulos to another Australian diplomat in London.

The White House has said it will not comment out of respect for Mr Mueller and the special counsel’s probe. Mr Downer has not replied to requests for comment.

Three months ago Mr Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about the contact he had with Russia while working for the Trump campaign. He has made a plea bargain and is believed to be co-operating with the Mueller investigation.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings said it would have been standard practice for the Turnbull government to have been informed of Mr Downer’s conversation with Mr Papadopoulos.

“In the normal course of events you would expect an ambassador or a high commissioner to either cable … or for something as sensitive as this maybe a phone call,” Mr Jennings said. “Would it have some sort of blowback in terms of Australia? Trump very regularly says via Twitter that he has no regard for The New York Times and I think it’s one of these things that he might have some sort of reaction to.”

Mr Jennings said Mr Trump appeared to have developed a “reasonably positive relationship” with Malcolm Turnbull but said the US President was very focused on the FBI investigation, and noted his tendency to get “angry and emotional” when dealing with criticism. “I’m sure he will be following this closely and reacting to these events as we’ve seen him do for the last 12 months … It’s possible there could be some sort of blowback that leads him to make negative comments about Australia,” he said.

Mr Jennings said it was a real possibility that this year the FBI would “come forward with some very damaging assessments” and “connections between the President and his team and Russian individuals during the campaign.”