I didn’t try to foil Donald Trump, says Alexander Downer

Alexander Downer is believed to have told US a inquiry he was not part of an anti-Trump conspiracy.

Former Australian high commissioner to Britain Alexander Downer. Picture: John Feder

Former diplomat Alexander Downer is believed to have told US investigators looking into the origins of the Russia investi­gation that he was not part of any conspiracy to undermine Don­ald Trump’s election campaign.

US Attorney John Durham, who is overseeing the inquiry, is understood to have interviewed Mr Downer in London last month and reviewed a confidential Australian diplomatic cable to clarify Australia’s role.

READ MORE: Hockey rebuts claims on Downer role in initiating Russia probe

US Attorney-General William Barr ordered the inquiry into why the FBI initiated the 2016 Russia investigation amid claims by Mr Trump and other Republicans that it was politically motivated to hurt Mr Trump’s election prospects.

Former Trump adviser ­George Papadopoulos, who met Mr Downer at a London wine bar in 2016, has claimed the former Australian high commissioner in London was involved in a plot against Mr Trump.

Mr Papadopoulos, then a junior Trump adviser, told Mr Downer at the wine bar that Russia had information that could be damaging to Mr Trump’s political opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Mr Durham is also believed to have interviewed another Australian diplomat in London, Erika Thompson, about the meeting.

Mr Downer reported Mr Papa­dopoulos’s claim at that time to the Department of Foreign Affairs . Several months later, in late July, when WikiLeaks released a trove of Russia-hacked emails on the Democrats and Mrs Clinton, Mr Downer reported Mr Papa­dopoulos’s claims directly to the US embassy in London.

Mr Downer’s information was sent to the FBI, which days later initiated the Russia investigation — an act that special counsel Robert Mueller said was based on Mr Downer’s report.

Mr Papadopoulos has accused Mr Downer of spying on him to try to establish that the Trump campaign was secretly working with the Russians, a claim Mr Downer strongly denies.

Mr Durham is understood to have asked Mr Downer whether he knew Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese academic who told Mr Papa­dopoulos the Russian govern­ment had “dirt” on Mrs Clinton.

Mr Papadopoulos accused Mr Downer of working with Mr Mifsud to entrap him and damage the Trump campaign.

Mr Downer declined to comment to The Australian on the Barr investigation, but has said previously: “This sort of idea that there is a kind of a ASIS-ASIO-MI6-MI5-FBI-CIA-Ukrainian government conspiracy to bring down the Trump administration, that this is treason, that I should be in Guantanamo Bay … I mean, it’s a little bit sad that people take that kind of thought seriously.”

The Australian government has publicly denied Mr Papadop­oulos’s claims and said it would co-operate fully with the Barr ­investigation.

The government is understood to have let Mr Durham see the confidential DFAT cable Mr Downer sent to Canberra in May 2016 after his meeting with Mr Papadopoulos. It is believed the government did not declassify the cable for the Americans or allow Mr Durham to take a copy but did allow him to read it.

Mr Durham is also understood to have interviewed Ms Thompson, who arranged and ­attended the Downer-Papadopoulos meeting.

Mr Trump called Scott Morrison shortly before the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington in September to request Australia’s co-operation in the inquiry. Mr Morrison pledged that Australia would co-operate fully.

Mr Trump sparked concern in Australia in late May when he said he hoped Mr Barr’s investi­gation would also look at Australia’s role, among others, in the origins of the Russia investigation. “I hope he (Barr) looks at the UK, and I hope he looks at Australia, and I hope he looks at Ukraine … because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country,” Mr Trump said.

The comments prompted Australia’s ambassador in Washington, Joe Hockey, to write a letter to Mr Barr pledging Australia’s full co-operation.

Mr Barr announced in May he would investigate the origins of the Russian investigation to see whether the FBI and intelligence agencies acted appropriately in initiating it.

Critics say the investigation is a partisan vehicle for Mr Trump to try to prove his belief that the Russian investigation and subsequent Mueller inquiry were driven by political bias against him within the FBI and intelligence agencies. Mr Trump and Republicans say the inquiry is a long overdue examination of whether the FBI was motivated by politics rather than evidence when it started its Russia investigation.