Editor’s Note: Yesterday, Liberty Nation managing editor Mark Angelides presented how the U.S. government could have conspired with agents of spy-for-hire companies to derail the Trump campaign. Today he details who the likely players in this clandestine operation were and the connections they have within the Deep State. What this outlines is a diabolical plot to steal the United States’ 2016 presidential election: spies, agents, money, and scams all aligned to create a narrative that would not only attempt to bring down a candidate, and then a president but to deceive an entire nation.
You can read yesterday’s article here.
For a complicated and nefarious operation to work, it requires the careful implementation of many moving parts. The actors involved in the scheme need to be established and assigned specific roles. Then each element must be carried out in a meticulously constructed timeline, and finally documentation of the event must be left hiding in plain sight. In today’s article, all three of these components are touched upon.
We begin with a list of the key players and their various roles:
- The Setter – Professor Joseph Mifsud
- The Verifier – Stephan Halper
- The Witness – Alexander Downer
- The Mark – George Papadopoulos
The Setter
The figure who set George Papadopoulos in motion was one Professor Joseph Mifsud; a man who claimed to have top-level contacts in the Russian government but whose background is a mixture of the obscure and unverifiable. Mr. Mifsud is a mysterious character: He is supposedly an ambassador but no one can verify this; the London Academy of Diplomacy where he is said to be a professor appears a shell institution. His native Malta has almost no record of him. None of his profiles for all the places where he is said to have worked connect on the internet. Mifsud, in fact, has been missing for several months now.
Nevertheless, the professor played a key role in the operation according to Papadopoulos who says the two met at a party in Italy, where he is alleged to have told the campaign advisor that he has high-level Russian connections. Later that month, the two men meet in London where Mifsud introduces him to a woman, named as Olga Vinogradova, who claims to be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s niece; she isn’t. This meeting and subsequent emails ostensibly confirm to Papadopoulos that Mifsud does indeed have valuable contacts in Russia.
The two men remain in contact and arrange to meet in order to discuss how to build bridges between foreign policy officials in the Trump campaign and the Russians. At a breakfast meeting, Mifsud states that the Russians had “dirt” on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” According to prosecution documents filed against George Papadopoulos:
“The Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS that on that trip he (the Professor) learned that the Russians had obtained “dirt” on then-candidate Clinton. The Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS, as defendant PAPADOPOULOS later described to the FBI, that “They [the Russians] have dirt on her”; “the Russians had emails of Clinton”; “they have thousands of emails.””
Papadopoulos is now “primed” for the next step.
The Verifier
This role is the crucial one on which all the others depend. The Verifier provides a provable third-party connection who confirms that The Mark (in this case Papadopoulos) knew of the planted information. When Stefan Halper asked “George, you know about hacking the emails from Russia, right?” he was creating a continuation point and further proof that the dossier was based on authentic information and also that the Trump campaign had knowledge of a crime. That criminality was the leaking of Mrs. Clinton’s emails which was about to be committed, although no evidence to date has indicated that this information was ever passed on to the campaign.
The Verifier acts as a pivot point between The Setter and The Witness.
The Witness
If Alexander Downer had not spent a drunken evening with George Papadopoulos, there would likely be no investigation.
The Witness must be someone above reproach, who is highly respected. Downer is an Australian politician and diplomat who previously led the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 until 2007, and currently sits as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Clearly a man of high standing.
Papadopoulos and Downer met in a Kensington bar through a series of intermediaries who made introductions. At this time, it is alleged that Papadopoulos was drunk and began “boasting” of Russia’s “dirt” on Clinton. In July 2016 when Wikileaks began releasing Hillary Clinton’s emails, “Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts.”
We do not know what Papadopoulos truly said. We also do not know who the “Australian officials” that Downer informed of his conversation were, nor why he did not pass on the information himself.
The Connections
But is there a connection between Downer and Halper? Actually, yes. Halper co-authored two books with Jonathon Clarke who “since 2001 he has been the U.S. representative of Hakluyt and Company, an international political and economic consulting firm.” Hakluyt is a spy-for-hire company that has offices in New York and London. Downer was on the board of Hakluyt from 2008 until 2014, when he had to step down as it conflicted with his appointment to head the Australian diplomatic post in London. Yet British foreign officials are apparently “disquieted” that Downer continues to attend private functions and events with the spies.
Downer and Halper know the same people, have the same connections and operate in each other’s circles; it is almost unthinkable that they have not connected at some point.
And what about other ties? Downer has recently come under fire, along with the FBI, for not declaring that he had orchestrated a $25 million payment from Australia to the Clinton Foundation. The method of how the “donation” was awarded has already been the subject of much suspicion and speculation. When this connection became apparent to the House Oversight subcommittee, Rep. Jim Jordan was aghast that such information had been held back. He said:
“The Clintons’ tentacles go everywhere. So, that’s why it’s important. We continue to get new information every week it seems that sort of underscores the fact that the FBI hasn’t been square with us.”
Mr. Halper’s ties to the Clintons go way back to 1964 where he studied alongside Bill Clinton at Oxford University. But what of his present relationship to the American political machine?
More recently, Halper received two payments from the U.S. government; one in September 2016 for $282,295, and the other in July 2017 for $129,280. The amounts are listed for “SPECIAL STUDIES/ANALYSIS- FOREIGN/NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY.”
The FBI agent at the center of the text message scandal, Peter Strzok, also has ties to this operation. He referenced an “insurance policy” in messages to his lover, (now retired FBI official) Lisa Page. The messages exchanged with Page certainly seem to indicate that something was in place – or up and running — that would secure a Trump loss. This message was sent on August 15, 2016. Unclassified documents just released by Senator Ron Johnson, showed that Strzok traveled to London on August 1 – 3, 2016. The documents show that he met with his MI6 counterparts and intelligence officials. Is the timing of these two events significant?
There is a multitude of questions that remain as pieces of this puzzle continue to be released in dribs and drabs. Our analysis of these events and people is not based on salacious guesswork, but rather deductive reasoning. What has emerged is a convergence of ordinary people, government agents, private intelligence operatives, money, opportunity, connections, and ties all designed to create the illusion that the Trump campaign and hence the president colluded with the Russian government to throw the presidential election his way.
And if indeed this was a scam or sting or trap – or whatever you want to call it — that played out step by step until now, it is time for the truth to finally and fully come to light and for justice to be done.
