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Nov. 3, 2018 - The Dan Bongino Show

01:06:11

The George Papadopoulos Interview You’ve Been Waiting For

Summary: In this special episode, I interview George Papadopoulos and his answers are explosive! Don't miss this! Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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	Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino.
	All right, welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
	This is the special interview tonight with a guest I've been looking forward to having on for a very long time.
	Honored to have George Papadopoulos.
	George, how are you?
	Thanks so much for coming on.
	Doing great, Dan, and thanks so much for inviting me.
	It's an honor.
	Yeah, so George, you have been a special focus of my show for a very long time.
	I think you may have heard some of it.
	I have believed from the start, wrote a book about it, as a matter of fact, that you were set up.
	It's not a mystery.
	I've given speeches about this.
	So in the interest of time for our audience, you are the one person they have desperately wanted to hear from.
	I get more emails about you than anyone else.
	I want to get right to it.
	I have a list of questions for you and obviously you're the subject matter expert because this is about you.
	First question.
	The meeting with Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese professor, which, according to multiple media reports and the FBI, George, they seem to believe this is the start of the thing, where this Maltese professor tells you about Russian dirt on Hillary.
	I guess the easiest question to ask is, why did you meet with Mifsud?
	You had mentioned on Fox & Friends that the place you were working set up the meeting.
	I thought that was fascinating.
	Can you explain a little more about that?
	Yeah, yeah, of course.
	So, yeah, so Professor Mifsud Uh, is a Maltese professor, just so everybody understands he's not Russian.
	Okay.
	I was working at this, uh, organization in London named the London center for international law practice that unbeknownst to me at the time was apparently some sort of front group for X, uh, Western diplomats and X, uh, Western intelligence types of, uh, personalities.
	Um, as well, the, uh, legal counsel of the FBI is a director, The legal counsel for the FBI in the UK, Avinder Sambe, just happens to also be a director at this organization I used to work for.
	So I told this organization, look, I'm joining the Trump campaign.
	I'm leaving.
	I'm going back to the US.
	I'm leaving London.
	But they all of a sudden told me, but before you leave, you really need to come to Rome with us.
	And we want to introduce you to some people there.
	So I say, that's fine.
	You know, I'll go to Rome.
	It's a three day, Holiday before I get back to Washington, and they introduced me to Joseph Mifsud at this university in Rome called Link Campus.
	Now, this isn't any normal university in Rome.
	I mean, at the time I had no idea what this place was, but apparently it's a training ground for Western intelligence operatives in Rome.
	The CIA has held symposiums there.
	David Ignatius from the Washington Post has actually written extensively about this place.
	And, uh, you know, they have connections to the FBI and other groups.
	Um, I also saw many Italian diplomats there.
	The ex ward minister of Italy was, uh, was the rector of this university.
	So things started to pop in my mind that, you know, this isn't just a random event, a random meeting.
	They tell me it's very important for you to meet Joseph Mifsud.
	I had no idea who this person was.
	He came up to me, presented himself.
	as this uh... mid-fifties uh... former diplomat who knew the world uh... you know yeah i noticed in your stand in the statement of offense that you seem to which which i find and i'm gonna get to this part later you seem to believe at the time that he was Puffing people up that he was a nothing and he was just, now is that right?
	I mean, what made you believe that?
	And just to be clear, I just want to reiterate something you said earlier so the audience is clear on this.
	The place you're working for, which you're indicating has some ties at least to Western and the United States former law enforcement, this is the place that sets up the meeting with Mifsud.
	It's not you.
	You don't seek Mifsud out.
	The organization you're working for with ties to Western intelligence, they're the ones that set this up.
	Am I hearing that right?
	Absolutely, and you know, one of the few people who actually orchestrated that meeting was Avinder Sambe, that anyone could simply Google this person and you'll see that she's the legal counsel of the FBI in the UK.
	So not a small person.
	So George, just to be clear on this though, because you said this on Fox & Friends with Kilmeade, and it blew me away, because I'm thinking to myself, having this body of research we've done for the book on this, that This is a fascinating point, because there are only two possible scenarios here, right, George?
	Number one is, Mifsud is the greatest Russian agent in human history who managed to get over on the Link Campus, Western Intelligence Connected people, these people you were working for at the company, and they did zero vetting Or, Occam's Razor, that Mifsud was probably not a Russian agent, and you were right the whole time that he was quote, a nothing.
	Am I right?
	Hey, look, I mean, I think you're absolutely right.
	This guy, okay, just so everybody understands, so this guy, he presents himself as this insider to the world, and then he says, I know Moscow, I know Vietnam, I know London.
	I mean, you have to understand the type of personality this person was.
	So I listened to him.
	I said, you know, I already have contacts in the Middle East, you know, I don't need them for anything like that.
	But let's see what he has to offer.
	A week later, I'm back in London, you know, kind of preparing my life to move back to the U.S.
	And he emails me out of the blue and he's like, I need to introduce you to a very important girl.
	And I said, OK, that's great.
	Who is this?
	I go back to the London Center for International Law Practice, and all of a sudden the directors
	over there are telling me, "Oh, guys, this is Putin's niece."
	So they were all in on this scam.
	It wasn't just Mifsud telling me that I'm introducing him to Putin's niece.
	It was the directors at this London Center for International Law Practice.
	Wait, this is big, George.
	She's not Putin's niece, which we know now, but this person, the Maltese professor, Mifsud, introduces to you, I believe she goes by Olga Vinogradova, there's a couple different names out there, but the people at the London Centre?
	Seem to believe she's Putin's niece too, which seems odd because she's not Putin's niece.
	Well, look, that's exactly right.
	I get there.
	She's just a young lady, barely speaks English.
	Uh, you know, just kind of an obscure person sitting and smiling, okay?
	So I, I, you know, I fell for it.
	I was a dupe at the time.
	Wait, this is the March 24th meeting, right?
	Yeah, the one- So set me up here.
	Who's at this meeting?
	Olga?
	Mifsud?
	Is there anyone else there?
	No, no, no one else is there.
	He invites me, you know, to this five-star hotel over in London just for lunch with this person and, you know, just sits there.
	She doesn't say much, uh, just obscure, barely speaks English.
	Now here's where things get really weird, okay?
	Now, after I return, I go to the national security meeting from that famous picture everyone knows what I'm talking about.
	Then I'm speaking at this conference in Israel in the beginning of April.
	I return back to London sometime in April, and this young lady, Putin's fake niece, begins to email me with Mifsud.
	And she goes from speaking barely any English to all of a sudden she's fluent in the language.
	She's some sort of insider to Moscow and she's going to introduce me to everyone with Mifsud in Moscow.
	So in my mind, unfortunately, at the time I was believing this nonsense until one day I texted her.
	I'm like, are you the same person that I met in London with Mifsud?
	And I never got a response.
	What I'm trying to say is, I don't think the girl that I met with Mifsud in person in London was the girl or whoever I was talking to in emails later on.
	So that's, I just want to make that clear.
	Can I throw something out there, George, at you?
	And this is a theory that was thrown out to me by someone who is, let's say, read in on the program a bit, right?
	This is an old tactic for assets in the intelligence community to pretend they don't speak the language knowing that people will speak freely around them because they think they don't speak the language.
	So, again, nobody knows better than you.
	You were there.
	I'm just throwing it out there that it's possible That it may have been the same person who spoke English perfectly the entire time, and let's just say, may have been working for someone that was not Russia at the time.
	That brings up another question though, George.
	Is the first time you meet Olga Vinogradova, Putin's alleged niece, who's not his niece, right?
	By the way, for all the listeners out there, she's apparently a manager at a wine store.
	That's what her official occupation is.
	Fascinating for Putin.
	Where they picked this girl up from, I have no idea.
	Now, let me throw something out at you here, because this is where I've been going lately, and an avenue I'm pursuing strongly.
	So, when do you meet her first?
	Is she at the March 14th meeting, or do you meet her first at the March 24th meeting?
	Because I know you meet with Ms.
	Sud twice, the 14th and the 24th.
	Is she at that 14th meeting, or is the first time you meet her the 24th?
	Yeah, so I've only met her once in my life, face-to-face, and it was, I think, March 24th in London.
	I didn't meet her in Rome, no.
	Let me throw something out at you, George.
	A lot of this statement of offense stuff, and when you read the investigative documents on your case, what I find fascinating, what someone suggested to me, and I believe they're onto something, is a lot of these statements of offense, alleging you did this and George did that, it's all spoken from a bird's-eye view.
	In other words, stop me if you're not following me, George.
	Joe knows already, because I've already had this conversation on the air with Joe.
	It's spoken like there was a third person there.
	And what I'm suggesting to you is that I think Vino Gradova may have been working with Western intelligence as well, because if it's not Mifsud, Telling them that.
	Who is it?
	It's not you.
	In other words, at some points in the investigative documents it says, and Mifsud wasn't interested, and then he was interested.
	And then it says, and Papadopoulos seemed this way, and then he seemed that way.
	And it's spoken from a view that there was an informant there.
	That's why I asked you what the first time you met with Vinnie Gradova because it says to me that that was the same person, Vinnie Gradova.
	She spoke English the whole time and was likely working for someone connected to Western intelligence to maybe, maybe oversee that meeting and make sure they had some kind of corroboration about what happened.
	It makes perfect sense when you read some of the charging documents because it's written analyzing you and Mifsud But we know it's not from you, and if it's not from Mifsud because they can't find him, then who else is it from?
	So, any thoughts on that?
	I have no idea.
	I'm following your lead on this one.
	It makes perfect sense, though.
	And I find it interesting, too, because one of the... I'm sorry, I just have so many questions.
	I guess you could tell I'm excited to talk to you, because your life has been my life for the last seven months.
	In the charging documents, I find it odd that they constantly talk about, in the statement of offense, the substantial connections these people had to Russia.
	Mifsud, the Russian MFA connection.
	And yet, ironically, in the same charging document, it says, and defendant Papadopoulos, said that they thought they were that they were a big nothing these people.
	But, you were right!
	Like, interestingly enough, there is no evidence that has surfaced since your arrest and your absurd prosecution, this witch hunt against you.
	There is no evidence that has been presented to show that these people had these substantial Russian connections.
	So what I'm saying, George, is that you were arrested and prosecuted, although the charging document itself exonerates you.
	You were right.
	These people were nothings.
	They didn't have substantial connections.
	We've never seen it.
	Look, I mean, uh, I look, I agree with, uh, with you on that.
	And, but also the only, actually we do know them.
	If so, it has substantial connections now because about a week ago, his lawyer went public and said that he was working for Western intelligence and under the guidance of the FBI.
	So unless this guy's lawyer and I'm represented by great lawyers and they would never lie about me publicly, they wouldn't slander me.
	You know, that's just not what lawyers do.
	If his lawyer's telling the truth, which there's no reason for him to be lying, especially given what we know about Mifsud's connection to Western intelligence, how my meeting with him was obviously orchestrated, and how he actually really had no connections to Russia.
	I mean, he introduced me to the fake niece of Putin, who, as you said, probably was working with Western intelligence, and a low-level think tank analyst in Moscow who I've never met to this day over email.
	So it makes, I mean, perfect sense.
	George, if that's true, what you just said, what the lawyer said, you're just quoting, and you're right.
	Stefan Rowe, who is Mifsud's lawyer, George is correct, folks.
	The lawyer has already put out statements multiple times.
	He has been categorical on this, that his client, Joseph Mifsud, is not a Russian asset, that his ties are to Western intelligence.
	You just heard it from George, too.
	Now think about that, George.
	If this is true, This was a clear-cut case of entrapment.
	You were unquestionably then set up by your own government.
	I mean, I don't get into these how-does-this-make-you-feel stuff often, but no, and a serious question.
	How does that make you feel that you may be the centerpiece of the biggest political scandal of our time?
	You know, honestly, it's been harder on my wife than even on me.
	I mean, she moved from Italy to be with me through this entire saga.
	She's had my back.
	She supported me publicly.
	We're doing our best.
	But now that new information is out, there's a reason that, first of all, there's a reason that my wife has been public and vocal about me actually rescinding my plea agreement, because she's known Mifsud longer than everyone.
	She actually used to work at the European Parliament.
	She knows about his ties.
	He used to meander around the European Parliament, the European institutions, and she knew about his connections to the Clintons, to, you know, the socialists in Europe.
	This guy was not connected at all to the Russians as far as, you know, she was telling me.
	And that's why she was like, what on earth are you pleading guilty for when this guy obviously is setting you up?
	At the time, of course, I had no idea who this person was.
	But do you know when it really struck me with a knife in my heart was when the FBI presented their sentencing memorandum.
	And they said that I was responsible for helping Mifsud escape and that I was the only one with the impression that Mifsud was a Russian agent.
	But there's actually no evidence that was ever supporting that fantasy that he was working with Russian intelligence.
	So just to summarize, it's been horrifying, but America has my back.
	You've had my back since day one, and we're going to get through this stronger than ever.
	Well, George, a couple other things as well.
	A couple of nonsense conspiracy theories.
	Let's just get these out of there.
	But I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you.
	These are stupid, they're ridiculous, but I see them on Twitter.
	Number one, your wife is not Russian, correct, Simona?
	She is not Russian.
	She's a blonde, blue-eyed girl from Naples, Italy.
	You can't get more Italian than her.
	They're the most Italian people you could possibly imagine.
	I get this stupidity all the time on Twitter.
	She's not Russian!
	So I love my audience, you guys are great, but please debunk that.
	Secondly, I know this is dumb, forgive me for asking, but there are a lot of wackos out there.
	And a lot of them on Twitter, some of them even have blue check marks, have alluded to the fact that you may have in fact been working with the intelligence community against the Donald Trump team.
	Can you please just address this stuff so we can get that out there?
	There's nothing further from the truth than that.
	I had absolutely nothing to do with intelligence operations against Trump, except the one that obviously set me up to try and hurt Trump himself.
	So, just to be clear about that.
	Okay.
	All right.
	All right, folks.
	Again, we're talking to George Papadopoulos.
	Thanks, Producer Joe, for the reminder.
	That's why he's the best in the business.
	Certainly, Dan.
	Yeah, we're talking to George Papadopoulos, who I've been eagerly anticipating this interview for a long time.
	All right, George, let me go down some of my questions here again.
	Olga Vinogradova, again, the alleged Putin's niece who's not Putin's niece, that you're introduced to by Mifsud.
	Another point I find interesting is if you read the statement of offense, There's a portion in there, George, you need to highlight and pay close attention to that's fascinating.
	They ask you at one point in your interview, obviously you know this because you were there for your interview with the FBI, they ask you if you've met anyone or had a meeting with anyone with a Russian accent.
	That's a fascinating little piece of the statement of offense, George.
	Because did you ever say to yourself, well, what do they mean, anyone with a Russian accent?
	What I'm basically getting at is, I think they knew about Vinogradova, because Vinogradova, I'm starting to come to the conclusion, may have been Western intelligence connected.
	But doesn't it all make sense now, why they would have asked you that?
	Like, hey, did you ever meet with anyone with a Russian accent?
	What does that mean, anyone with a Russian accent?
	anyone, you know?
	I mean, no, I mean, thinking of it right now, you're absolutely right.
	I mean, because I've made it public, you know, I've never knowingly met any Russian official.
	I've never been to Russia.
	I don't have Russian friends and I don't even like Russian food.
	So I don't understand what that means by a Russian accent, but you're absolutely right.
	You just put that back in my memory.
	That was quite strange.
	And she probably was the only one with a Russian accent, to be honest.
	Why else would they ask that, George?
	You worked in London.
	You clearly had no ties to people in Russia at this point.
	This seems to me like that question, did you ever meet anyone with a Russian accent, was designed to get you to lie about this alleged Putin's niece who wasn't Putin's niece.
	Now, moving on.
	With the Ms.
	Soot interview, do you think he was recording you and just some of the tricks of the trade?
	I mean, did he move a cell phone close to you?
	Did he say, let's move to a quiet place in the restaurant?
	Did he try to sit closer to you that it kind of got into your space and was a little weird?
	Did you think he may have been recording you?
	Uh, I definitely think he was.
	And, um, let's just say, uh, I'm under the current understanding that, uh, there are probably some transcripts regarding, uh, Mifsud and I. So I, we, I don't know if that's ever going to be public, if it is, if it's not.
	Let's just say that's something that's come across to my mind a little recently.
	Well, those transcripts, and I understand you say what you're comfortable with and what you're not, no pressure at all, but I believe there are transcripts.
	It's been alluded to by members of The Hill who have read these documents.
	What those transcripts are of is still an open question, to be candid.
	I believe there are transcripts of that.
	Are those transcripts going to be exculpatory?
	I mean, at any point during that conversation about the Russian emails or the Russian dirt from Mifsud, do you push back on him at all and say, hey, brother, I'm not, I'm not sure about that.
	All I can say about that stuff is imagine yourself right now.
	You're meeting somebody that you have no idea why you're meeting with him, except that he just wants to have lunch and they drop a bomb on you.
	It's as if, you know, I didn't know what he wanted to talk about and he just said to me as I'm sitting there enjoying my omelets, George, I have information that the Russians have thousands of Hillary Clinton's emails.
	I couldn't even finish my, uh, the piece of food in my mouth as he's talking to me.
	And I'm just thinking, you know, is this guy just, uh, validating rumors that, uh, judge Napolitano, I think the day before, Was openly speculating on Fox News.
	Many people in the media were speculating about it.
	So, uh, you know, I was just looking at him like, okay, that's interesting.
	Uh, this guy's validating rumors, but how on earth would he have this information?
	This was going in my mind.
	How does he have this information?
	If he couldn't even introduce me to anyone of substance in the Russian government, which actually I was trying to connect with at the time, you know, just to understand what the U S Russia relationship was all about and Then he drops this information on me, and when he said it to me, I didn't find him credible, and that's the truth.
	So you thought this was just him puffing himself up again to look like some kind of an insider?
	Let me ask this question differently.
	You don't think at any point that this guy's like some serious Russian spy who actually has these emails?
	In other words, from what you just said, I'm just summarizing what you just said, you think this guy's doing some kind of puffery again based on news reports to make himself appear connected when he's not?
	Am I right?
	Yeah, I mean, look, this is a guy who just, he puffed himself up.
	Yeah, I thought he was, he could have had some contacts.
	As I said in the beginning of this, he said that he knew the world, he knew people in Moscow.
	I just never happened to see them.
	So when he dropped this information on me, I thought, you know, he's just validating rumors or he's trying to puff himself up.
	That's the truth.
	All right yeah because that's really the key to everything and the potential transcripts if it's not I mean let's be clear with the audience if it's not you and again I'm not asking you to say any more than you need to say I'm just saying from my perspective if those transcripts are not you saying I want those emails and we're going to use them to impact the election and we're going to give them to WikiLeaks I mean, the case, George, is over.
	That's the case.
	The case is your meeting with Mifsud.
	That is the case.
	You see where I'm going with that?
	Absolutely.
	And the question that comes to my mind is, why are there transcripts with Mifsud?
	Why was he recording me?
	And who sent him to record me?
	And how does somebody in our government have or not have Access to those transcripts. So we already know that
	Stephen Halper was recording me. We know that Alexander Downer was recording me
	It makes complete sense and Mifsud who is tied into this trifecta
	Was recording me and you know what if he was recording me I really hope those transcripts are public because it
	completely exonerates me It's exculpatory and I had nothing to do with at wanting
	emails finding emails or ever disseminating emails I just wanted to get as far away as possible from this guy
	Mifsud George you just said something that the audience really it's
	it's profound and I'm not some people might have missed it [BLANK_AUDIO]
	The fact that there may be recordings at all is a game changer.
	Because if Mifsud is a high-level Russian agent who has access to the upper echelons of the Russian government and recorded you for them, how the hell does the United States intel community have to Russians would be admitting that they colluded in the election?
	So if there are transcripts, there's only two explanations.
	The only one that makes sense, only one actually, that if the U.S.
	government or the I.C.
	has a hold of these current transcripts, if they exist, it's because Mifsud was not a Russian agent or else it makes absolutely no sense.
	They'd be admitting that they tried to collude to win the election for Trump, which they've denied.
	It doesn't make any sense.
	I agree with you on that one.
	And as you said, how would they have access to these transcripts?
	And you know what?
	Why is this person living openly right now in Europe?
	Why is he being represented by top law firms in London?
	Why is his lawyer going public?
	I mean, who's helping him hide?
	That's another... I mean, he's living in Europe, but... You think he's dead?
	No, no, no.
	I don't think he's dead.
	I mean, his lawyer, like I said, just I think a week ago, one publican said, everyone, this narrative is upended.
	We just need to tell you the truth.
	This was a Western intelligence operation targeted at Papadopoulos.
	I think he's under hiding.
	I don't know who's helping him, but it's certainly not Russia.
	This is the Dan Bongino Show.
	We're interviewing George Papadopoulos.
	So, George, moving on, I'm going to get back to that in a second, but do you think there was a FISA warrant on you?
	I do.
	I think there was a FISA warrant on me and probably, you know, most of the listeners are going to be shocked.
	I think the FISA had to do with my work in the energy business and in Israel in particular.
	I think that's actually what this is all about, including my case.
	I think my case is all about the Obama administration, likely the DOJ and the State Department, having me under tremendous scrutiny.
	Due to my contacts in the Middle East and in Israel. I mean, let's not forget for all the viewer
	I was the one that brokered the meeting between Trump and the Egyptian president
	Cece you don't just walk into the Egyptian Embassy or call Cairo and have these things happen if you're not an insider
	I had a lot of contacts there. I used to work in the think-tank business in Washington, and then I was a private
	Energy businessman so I I had these contacts and just to be frank when the FBI came to my house in January for the
	first time they were questioning me about my ties to Israel and
	then all of a sudden when we go into All these other issues about hacked emails Russia
	So there's a lot more than my story than that. Most people could possibly even imagine
	Now, George, that version you just told there seems to run kind of symbiotically with the witch hunt against Mike Flynn.
	Remember, the initial targeting against Mike Flynn, some of the stories out there were about his connections to the Turkish government.
	Remember, this was all FARA stuff.
	This wasn't like espionage stuff or collusion.
	So it would make sense If you became a target, let me just walk you through a potential series of events here.
	So you're announced in roughly early March, the Washington Post meeting, Trump announces you're going to be part of the foreign policy team.
	You may have been on the radar prior Because of that, people may have been looking or giving a look-see at you for some reason.
	When that comes up that you're part of the Trump team, you know, a light bulb goes off and some I.C.
	law enforcement community guy saying, hey, listen, look at this guy on the Trump team now.
	This guy's also been talking to people in the Middle East about some business stuff.
	Maybe he's a guy we can target.
	And that would explain away question number one a lot of people have.
	Why George Papadopoulos?
	Like, why this guy?
	Why pick him?
	You may have been already on somebody's radar for something unrelated.
	Look, Dan, there's actually, that's absolutely right.
	I mean, I was on the target of some intelligence group, and they definitely knew who I was.
	And just to make it clear to everyone listening, when I met with Mifsud, when I met with Alexander Downer, and when I met with Stephen Halper, Do you know what these people all had in common?
	They all wanted to talk about my business in the Middle East and what I was doing regarding advising American oil companies, etc, etc.
	So it's public knowledge now that Stefan Halper himself paid me $3,000 to write a report about my expertise in the energy business.
	So obviously, I had a target on me for that.
	I don't know why.
	I think it was completely politically motivated because I haven't seen evidence to this day of why I would be some sort of agent or whatever, you know, the Obama administration thought I was, except that it was probably politically motivated to target me and likely put some sort of surveillance on me and by extension cover the entire Trump campaign.
	And that's why I think there was a FISA.
	Recent information I've understood is leading me to believe that even more so.
	George, that's an explosive.
	If that turns out to be true, I mean, we obviously know there was a FISA warrant on Carter Page.
	If that turns out to be true, that there was also a FISA warrant on you as well, this is a potentially explosive revelation.
	I mean, this would mean that foreign policy advisors of an opposition political campaign to the Obama administration had multiple people under investigation by a court used to target terrorists That's non-adversarial, and you had no means of knowing you were under surveillance.
	I mean, think about where we've come, George.
	Initially, when the allegation of the FISA was made by a radio host, a friend of mine, Mark Levin, who was right about the FISA, people called him a nut and a conspiracy theorist.
	He was right!
	There is a FISA on Carter Page.
	If there's another FISA out there on you, this would be, I mean, earth-shattering information.
	Well, let me make something even more clear that supports my contention of this FISA allegation I'm making.
	In April of 2017, before everyone probably listening to your show even heard the name Papadopoulos, okay?
	This is April 2017, before I was arrested, etc.
	I had, let's say, two representatives from, one from the most powerful newspaper in our country, and another representative from the largest network TV channel in our country, reach out to me on back-to-back days, a couple days after that A Jim Wolf person was leaking information to Allie Watkins of the New York Times about a FISA.
	They both reached out to me in April of 2017 and told me, we have information that you had a FISA on you.
	Wow!
	Wow, is that right?
	Did Allie Watkins contact you?
	No, no, no, no, no.
	I'm not saying Allie Watkins contacted me.
	I'm just telling you that two very, very credible sources, one from a very influential newspaper in this country, And another from one of the largest network TV channels in this country reached out to me on April 12 and April 13, 2017 to meet.
	And what did they want to talk about?
	They wanted to tell me that they had information that there was a FISA on me.
	Now, when they told me this, I laughed it off because I hadn't been arrested.
	I hadn't been embroiled in what I guess I'm in now.
	So I was wondering to myself, how could I have a FISA on me when I don't know any Russians?
	I don't know.
	I don't know any Russian government officials.
	I mean, what could that possibly be?
	And after that, that's when, you know, this weird guy gives me the $10,000.
	And, you know, a lot of strange things happened after I was told that.
	Well, let's get into that, because I find that to be a fascinating exchange.
	And Chuck Ross at The Daily Caller was all over this.
	Again, you listen to the Dan Bongino Show, we're interviewing George Papadopoulos.
	So Charles Tawil approaches you and gives you, is it $10,000 in U.S.
	cash?
	Is it Euros?
	What is it?
	And where did it happen?
	Can you just paint a picture of how this happens overseas?
	Because this is a very, very suspect interaction here.
	Yeah, I'm under the complete impression that Charles Tawil was working on behalf of Western intelligence to entrap me.
	And I'll explain the set of events leading up to this meeting or to the exchange of money.
	I had met this individual, I think, two weeks after the FBI interviewed me.
	He just popped into my life from heaven, I guess, and decided that he wanted to talk business of some nature with me.
	He was introduced to me by this other intermediary.
	I meet with him in Chicago for lunch, and he starts talking very strange to me.
	He's a 60-year-old man, very intelligent, you know, seems very well-kept.
	So I was just listening to see what he wanted to talk about.
	And as soon as I get there, he starts telling me, you know, everyone could hear our conversation right now.
	And I started to feel very suspicious of what this guy was talking to me about.
	Fast forward to the end of the lunch, he goes to me and he says, I want you to go to my friend and I want to take a picture of you.
	Now I had many people take pictures of me during this entire episode.
	And every single one who wanted to do that was connected to some intelligence operation.
	So then we go to the summer.
	I meet him initially in March of 2017.
	Then, of course, in April, I'm told I have a vice on me.
	And then I'm in Greece with my girlfriend at the time in Mykonos.
	We're having a beautiful time.
	And he emails me and he says, George, I want to come see you to finalize our business agreements.
	And I said, OK, let's see what this guy has to talk about.
	He flies into Mykonos.
	He starts talking very strange to me, to my girlfriend at the time.
	And I started to notice that people were keeping us under some sort of watch while we were in Greece.
	Things weren't clicking completely.
	What makes you believe that?
	What do you mean talking strange?
	Like, what makes you believe you were being surveilled?
	I know the feeling, because I've been surveilled, but I'm wondering what made you believe that?
	Okay, well, let me back up.
	Before I get to Greece in, let's say, April or May of 2017, I'm subpoenaed by the Senate.
	I get stopped by four armed guards at O'Hare Airport in Chicago as I'm trying to board my plane where they're asking me if I'm planning on returning to the U.S.
	I get to Greece and, you know, it's low season.
	I'm at a bar and my friend tells me, you know, look behind you.
	And I look behind me and there are these four guys with black sunglasses, black shirts, just staring at me.
	So I started to feel there was something really strange going on.
	A day later, Charles Towell, Then comes to me and he wants to meet in Mykonos.
	He starts talking strange to me and my girlfriend, basically asking if my girlfriend at the time was an operative like he was.
	And then he says, it's very important for you to come to Israel so we can finalize this agreement.
	I, to this day, never understood what on earth this person wanted to do, except set me up.
	And that's, and I'll explain what I mean by this.
	He invites me to Israel and he puts me in a room.
	Uh, with these ex Israeli intelligence people, I had absolutely no idea why I was in this room and they were talking to me about some, uh, some, uh, program of theirs that the CIA and the FBI were clients of that helped out with social media manipulation.
	So immediately when I was stuck in this room with this person and these individuals, I knew I was being framed and I was being entrapped because I, that's not obviously what I was supposed to be doing when I went to Israel.
	And as soon as that meeting ends, he takes me to a hotel where I'm completely terrified.
	I was texting my girlfriend at the time, like, how do I get out of here?
	You know, I think this guy's going to kill me.
	And, uh, we're in a room and he's like, come in my room.
	I need to talk to you.
	And, uh, he hands me $10,000 in us bills and a hundred dollar bills.
	And right there.
	And then I said, if I don't take this money, this guy could possibly kill me.
	Or if I take the money, let me get out of here.
	Leave Israel and just tell him to take his money and never contact me again.
	And that's exactly what happened.
	I take the money.
	I then fly to Greece a couple of days later.
	I contact him and I tell him, come take your money.
	I don't want you contacting me again.
	And he tells me, I don't want my money.
	Now that for me was incredibly suspicious.
	He never wanted his money back.
	I offered him his money back.
	The money is still with my lawyers actually in Greece at this moment.
	And, Three or four days after that exchange, I'm arrested at the airport and I have FBI agents looking for money in my bag.
	Now, it's an incredible, insane story, but it's true.
	Well, let me give you a couple coincidences here, and I say coincidences with air quotes.
	What I find interesting about it is they addressed social media manipulation to you in that meeting, when that was going to be the charge against Trump the entire time.
	That the Russians were colluding with them to, one, get out emails via Wikipedia, but also to manipulate via social media the election.
	Matter of fact, that's turned up later on in one of Mueller's indictments.
	So either, again, the Russians were working with the Israelis, or you're being set up with a narrative that was pre-planned in advance.
	Now, fascinatingly enough, they give you just enough United States cash that if you were to enter the United States and not declare it in that amount, you would have found yourself in a world of trouble.
	Now, when you left the money behind, you had the feeling you were being set up, so that money's still there, you've never touched it?
	Oh, not only did I feel I was completely set up, that's exactly why I told him, come get your money and don't ever contact me again, I'm actually trying to bring that money back somehow so that Congress can investigate it, because I'm 100% sure those are marked bills, and to see who was actually running this operation against me, and I think Congress can figure that out, not me.
	Well, there's probably some paper trail if there was.
	Again, I believe this was a set-up.
	It's not a mystery.
	I've said this the whole time.
	There would be some kind of paper trail.
	You don't just give out that kind of money randomly.
	Paint a picture for me of the airport scene.
	You return back.
	You don't have the money, which was a smart move on your part, suspecting something was up there.
	So you come back, you have no idea, you haven't been tipped off by anybody that anything's going on, you're just, you walk into the airport with virgin eyes on this, is that right?
	Virgin eyes, except just having a strong sixth sense, I guess.
	And, you know, thank goodness I followed that, and my girlfriend at the time was telling me that this guy is just up to no good and he just set you up.
	So I get to the airport, and I think you've mentioned it in a couple of your podcasts, You don't get arrested in a violent manner the way I was for a lying charge.
	So, you know, I get to the airport, you know, there are agents waiting for me, I'm handcuffed.
	You know, I've never been arrested before and I was thinking, is this all for lying?
	Is this how you get, you know... Wait, George, this is a key point here.
	Are you arrested before... I've been to Dulles.
	This is at Dulles, correct?
	I've been to Dulles IED many times there.
	Are you arrested before clearing customs or after?
	Before.
	That's fascinating.
	So now, on the plane, when you come back from international, you gotta fill out the blue slip.
	Did you fill that blue slip out?
	You know the custom slip I'm talking about?
	Yeah, I know.
	Did you have that?
	Do you remember where it was?
	I don't remember, but all I know is I never got to passport control.
	So you don't know what happened to that blue slip?
	Did they take it from you?
	I can't remember.
	I can't remember.
	See, that would be interesting because it would explain away a lot of what the $10,000 and the money and the declaration, but they need the declaration form first because you would have to sign it.
	So that's interesting.
	So did they grab you right off the plane?
	Um, you know, I get on the shuttle train, um, you know, that shuttle train on Dulles.
	Yeah.
	Everyone's exhausted.
	I just got off a, you know, transatlantic flight.
	I hadn't slept in about... What time is it, by the way, roughly?
	It's probably like seven o'clock at night.
	Yeah.
	And, uh, I notice, you know, these two guys in crisp suits and ties.
	And I say, these guys are, you know, they're probably agents of some sort.
	And, uh, you know, but before I get to passport control, I'm, you know, I'm basically detained and, uh, people are looking through my bag and looking for money, I think.
	And then you're under arrest, kind of thing.
	So they arrested you right there?
	Did they talk to you, then arrest you?
	Or did they tell you you were under arrest and then interview you?
	You're under arrest, and then tried to interview me, and then I just told them, you know, I want my lawyer now.
	I have no idea what's going on.
	So everything, I mean, you have to understand how this is all last, this is summer of 2017, you know, before.
	And I know I'm asking you, but the detail there is critical.
	Um, and I see that this detail is critical and I suggest you bring this up to your lawyer because did they show you a warrant?
	No.
	So what were you under arrest for?
	You hadn't, you hadn't made, was it the false statements charge that they believe you made in January?
	I never understood why I was under arrest.
	Uh, until I got in front of the magistrate the next day.
	Uh, where I was, uh, where there were charges there.
	But I never understood why I was being detained or why I was under arrest.
	No.
	Because, George, if they didn't arrest you with a warrant, my experience in federal law enforcement is, this is not the NYPD.
	In the NYPD, you arrest people all the time without warrants.
	Why?
	You know, you're cruising in your patrol car, you see someone, God forbid, hits another guy or whatever it is, you arrest them.
	There's no warrant because you just witnessed it.
	That's not the way it works in the federal system.
	While you can make a probable cause Warrantless arrest.
	I'm telling you from someone who did it for 12 years, it is extremely rare.
	And in a case as deeply impactful as yours, supposedly this big Russian collusion conspiracy you were allegedly at the center of, right?
	To show up at the airport without a warrant Is absurd.
	And I highly recommend you ask your lawyer exactly how you were arrested.
	Was it a probable cause arrest?
	Or was there a complaint drawn up and an arrest warrant?
	Because if there wasn't an arrest warrant, George, what I'm trying to get at is somebody panicked at the last minute.
	Nobody shows up to arrest an alleged international conspirator in some Russian collusion scheme.
	Nobody shows up in federal law enforcement at the airport with no warrant.
	No way.
	That is a critical piece of information.
	I think Politico wrote an article about this.
	I think Josh Gerstein wrote some article about it, but my understanding is, as I said, I had no idea why I was being arrested.
	Until the next day in front of the magistrate, I heard, you know, lying to the FBI and obstruction.
	So I have to agree with you.
	I think it was rushed.
	And, you know, there was probably a reason for that.
	I don't know why that happened, though.
	So, I just got a couple more questions for you, George, but I just want to go down these lists of people and want to ask you, like, when you got suspicious that there was something serious going on here?
	So, all of these people are offering you money.
	We have Charles Tawil, who you already said you told the story.
	You're obviously suspicious of him.
	You're suspicious of Mifsud, what, about the second or third meeting, or right at the first meeting when he says the Russian email thing?
	Actually, it's not at the first meeting, it's the March 14th meeting when he says that.
	Is that when you get suspicious of Mifsud, when he drops that bombshell on you, as you're eating the omelet there?
	That's exactly when I got suspicious of Mifsud, was on that April 26th meeting, and that's when I started to distance myself from that person as much as possible, yes.
	What about Sergei Millian?
	Sergey Millian's another very strange character in this whole thing.
	I think he was also working on behalf of some organization to target me.
	One of his associates during the inauguration told me that he was working for the FBI.
	I don't know if that's true or not.
	I don't have proof except with what one of his associates told me.
	I can just say that this person tried to Uh, set me up in a financials crime of some... Another guy tries to set you up with money.
	Explain.
	This is amazing.
	How many people wanted to give you money is incredible.
	Dan, I had, I had women throwing at me and money all the time.
	You know, everybody wanted to trap... You're like a rock star.
	Including Helper, by the way, which we haven't gotten to.
	He had some, uh, this little honeypot trying to, uh, you know, seduce me for another whole thing, but we'll get to that later.
	We have time.
	So Millian, you know, he reaches out to me out of the blue in July of 2016 and he tells me I'm a former associate of Trump.
	I worked on his Trump Hollywood stuff and I would like to meet with you.
	So initially I thought, you know, this guy's connected to Trump and he just wants to meet and just figure out, you know, who I am and things like that.
	I meet with him one time or so in New York and I see him pull out his phone and put it in front of the table and right away I think this guy's recording me for some reason.
	I didn't understand what it was.
	So I don't see him again.
	And then he contacts me out of the blue sometime in late September, October.
	This is around the time there's another FISA warrant for all the listeners.
	The Page FISA, I think, was in October.
	And he's like, I would like to come to Chicago and talk to you, you know, just one last time.
	I have a very interesting proposal that you might be interested in if you want to join the private sector.
	And I said, okay, I have nothing to lose.
	Let me hear what this guy has to talk about.
	It might be something Trump related or not Trump related.
	And he comes to me and he's like, I have a deal for you for $30,000 a month, a great office in Manhattan.
	It's simply PR for, I think he said some ex minister in Russia, but the qualifier is you have to work for Trump at the same time in his administration.
	And you can't tell anybody.
	Now, as he's telling me this, I just want the listeners to have my eyes for a moment.
	He has a scarf around his neck.
	He's sweating.
	His eyes are bogged out.
	And he's pacing back and forth as he's dropping this incriminating information on me.
	I tell him to his face, listen, I don't know what you're talking about.
	I'm not interested.
	And I think you should just leave.
	So he leaves.
	I don't see him again.
	I go to the inauguration, and one of his associates tells me he was working for the FBI.
	I don't know what that's about.
	If he was, if he wasn't, the guy's fallen off the face of the planet, and no one's been able to find him or reach him, similar to how Joseph Miff said.
	So my story is filled with all these really interesting, shady characters that I can't put a finger on, and I hope somebody does very soon.
	You listen to Dan Bongino's show, we're interviewing George Papadopoulos.
	George, it is amazing how a guy, according to your own account, with no Russian connections whatsoever, is constantly being approached by multiple people offering either information or money.
	Now why I find Millian so fascinating, just to recap quick, I find Mifsud fascinating because his connections, based on a basic internet search, are largely to Western intel.
	I find Halper interesting, we'll get to him in a second, because of his connections to the Central Intelligence Agency.
	I find Tawil interesting because he gives you the exact amount of money you'd need to be caught up in a whole money laundering scheme or something if you enter the United States without declaring it.
	And I find Millian interesting because he offers you $30,000 a month, yet there's credible reporting out there, George, that Sergei Millian may in fact be SourceD.
	In the dossier, meaning Millian may have been passing information off to Christopher Steele to use to put into the FISA court to spy on Donald Trump while simultaneously trying to quote, recruit you.
	Did you smell something wrong with this right away?
	I mean, obviously the sweating and everything, but you, do you realize at this point, like this is, this is a setup?
	Of course.
	Absolutely.
	And, and that's why, you know, I described, uh, the, I guess the environments because I remember it's so vivid.
	Uh, you know, this is a meeting from probably over two years ago, but I remember it like it just happened because, uh, it was so bizarre.
	I mean, every single meeting that was incredibly bizarre, including Stefan Halper, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, Charles Towell, uh, and Sergey Millian, these five people had made such an impression on me because of how bizarre their behavior was that I can't forget them.
	And not only can I forget them, they're all major characters in this, uh, this, I guess this operation of some nature by various
	parties to try and sabotage Trump in his campaign.
	Now, another approach and the final one I want to address on this front is you get approached
	again by Stefan Halpern.
	Now again, just to clear up some audience misconceptions, because there are a lot of conspiracy theorists floating around out there, including Seth Abramson, who seems to think you're the key to this whole thing.
	He's making me crazy, Seth Abramson.
	But, Stephen Halper contacts you, correct?
	You do not contact Stephen Halper.
	I had no idea who Stephen Helper was until he emailed me out of the blue on, I think, September 2, 2016, where he wanted to basically pay me to hear my thoughts on, as I stated earlier, my connections to Israel and the energy business as a whole.
	So this is probably the strangest encounter I had, because it directly links the British, I think, in Spygate.
	I don't know if people have been covering it, but the British Certainly, uh, we're targeting the campaign and so were the Australians.
	Uh, I get to London and there, he has a associate of his, this young lady, uh, named Azra Turk.
	Um, I didn't know she didn't fit the profile of a Cambridge assistant.
	Uh, you know, she was very provocative, uh, let's say scantily dressed at best.
	Okay.
	Uh, and she wants to try and seduce me to, and get me to say things that aren't true.
	for example, about Russia and all this, you know, nonsense.
	I basically say, "Okay, I don't know what you're talking about." And then the next day, Stefan—
	So she starts asking you about Russian emails as Azeri Turk as well?
	Yes, that's my understanding, yes.
	So they think you're going to fall into this honey trap and jump in there and do your thing and then all of a sudden in some love euphoria moment spit out that you're the centerpiece of a major Russian collusion conspiracy?
	Am I reading this right?
	That's exactly, I guess, what their fantasy was.
	Now here's where it gets strange because now we have the Turkish government involved.
	This was a Turkish national meeting with me.
	And she was part of an operation.
	Azra Turk, for everyone to understand, was a Turkish national.
	She wasn't American.
	So this, this is why it leads me to believe this was possibly a CIA or MI6 operation and not necessarily FBI, even though the current narrative is it's FBI.
	So I meet with her.
	I really don't understand why I'm talking to her.
	The next day I meet with Stefan Halper and he's, he's belligerent.
	He's very hostile to me.
	In particular about my ideas about the energy business, about Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Greece.
	He hates Trump.
	And I'm starting to wonder, why did this guy pay me to come out here?
	He paid me for a five-star hotel, my flight included, and good money to write a report, but he was really not interested in that topic.
	He's really more interested in belittling Trump and wanting to hear things about Russia.
	Now, the next day, As I'm trying to leave, as I'm going back home, or the next day, I should say, he pulls his phone out and he says, you know, I want to meet with you.
	So we meet over drinks and he pulls his phone out.
	So right away, I think this guy's doing something that he shouldn't be doing.
	And he tells me, George, it's obviously, you know, in your interest to be working with Russia to hack emails and that the Russians are helping you and that you're complicit in this conspiracy.
	Isn't that right, George?
	You know, these open-ended, very strange things, and I told him flat out, I don't know what you're talking about.
	What you're talking about is treason.
	I have zero information about what you're talking about, and neither does anyone on the campaign, so just leave me alone.
	And, you know, I think John Solomon from The Hill, he's written a pretty interesting piece about that where, I guess, Halper really was recording me, and that information was in there about me telling Halper, I don't know what you're talking about, so just stay away from me.
	Um, so that was, I guess, part of the exculpatory evidence that never was presented.
	So how does the meeting end?
	I mean, when you tell him that, is he offended?
	Does he storm out?
	I mean, how does it end?
	Uh, he, he's very mad.
	He's, uh, sweating and, uh, he just basically, uh, finishes his drink, uh, and storms out of the bar and just tells me to go.
	Now here's something that I don't know if anyone realizes, but as I'm meeting Stefan Halper, who invites me to also meet the same day?
	During this operation, the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they roll out the red carpet for me and they want me to meet Tobias Elwood.
	A simple Google search of Tobias Elwood will show you that he was the number two to Boris Johnson at the time that he wanted to meet with me.
	This guy, Tobias Elwood, was trying to meet with me for months.
	They met with me in London at the time and the British were keeping tabs on me for months before and after the helper meeting.
	And recent information and articles that have come out have shown that the British were complicit in the spying operation against the campaign.
	I don't know to what extent they were tasked only with me, but they're incredibly complicit in this operation against the campaign as well.
	Well, George, let me read to you a headline from CNN Politics, which you've probably heard a thousand times.
	This is a CNN article.
	It's not a Dan Bongino article.
	This is a CNN article that is still up on the web.
	Folks, you can Google this yourself at home if you want to follow along.
	CNN Politics, an article by Jim Sciutto, Pamela Brown, and Eric Bradner, dated April 14, 2017 at 12.49 a.m.
	Eastern Time.
	Headline, British intelligence passed Trump associates' communications with Russians onto U.S.
	counterparts.
	So, George, what you're saying, and the reason I'm bringing this up is because I know a lot of Liberals who are so bought into this collusion hoax are gonna say, oh, I heard George in the Bongino show, he's just trying to deflect.
	What you're saying has already been reported by left-leaning media outlets.
	There's nothing conspiratorial about this at all because the article's still up.
	Your British connection is already documented, is what I'm getting at.
	Absolutely, absolutely.
	And Stephen Halper, the British government, and including Downer, By the way, I don't know if we got to Downer, if we did earlier, if we didn't, but that's somebody... Not yet.
	But let's get to him now, because that's a fascinating angle on this, because Downer is the Australian ambassador, but you meet him again in London, which seems to be the geographical center of all of this suspicious stuff going on around you.
	Oh, absolutely.
	OK, so just so everyone understands, the current narrative is that I was in a bar randomly drunk And Alexander Downer stumbles upon me.
	He's drunk and we're talking about conspiracy.
	That's, I guess, what the current fake narrative is.
	Now, let me explain to everyone what the truth is.
	This was no random meeting.
	This meeting was orchestrated and it was made through three intermediaries, OK?
	The first intermediary was an Israeli diplomat named Christian Cantor in London who despised Trump, who one day told me after Trump's foreign policy speech,
	"I want to introduce you to my girlfriend."
	Now, who was this person's girlfriend?
	She just happened to be an Australian intelligence officer and the assistant to Alexander Downer named Erica Thompson.
	Now, I meet with her and she's belligerent.
	You know, she's calling Trump a pariah, that the campaign is a horrible campaign
	and, you know, Trump will never win kind of thing.
	So anyway, I'm listening to these people's opinions.
	And then I have an interview with the Times of London, which is London's, you know,
	it's the most powerful newspaper in London.
	And in this newspaper interview, I basically state that David Cameron, the prime minister of the UK, should retract or apologize, retract his comments about Trump being an idiot for his Muslim ban comments.
	And that, you know, he should reach out to Trump in a more productive manner and because he's likely going to be the next president.
	Now, that same night, there was all over The U.K.
	and around the world, there was some title along the lines of Trump Demands Apology from Cameron.
	It was a very, you know, sensationalized title, you know, that brought a lot of heat on me, including from U.S.
	intelligence people in the U.K.
	The day after this, so for everyone keeping track, this is May 2nd, 2016.
	The day after that interview, I have two guys, Americans from the U.S.
	Embassy, reaching out to me, which I think were DIA people.
	And they tell me, we want to meet with you.
	Their names are Gregory Baker and Terrence Dudley.
	I think Terrence Dudley is still at the London embassy right now as a Navy attache.
	They want to meet with me.
	And, you know, they're whining me, they're dining me as if I was Marilyn Monroe or, you know, some beautiful woman, you know, something that just never made sense to me.
	You know, they're spending a lot of money on me.
	They're probing me.
	They're asking me about my my ties in the Middle East.
	You know, let's go back to that theme.
	They're asking me about what Trump wants to do with Russia.
	I said look. I don't know I mean this is basically I'm just deflecting them and then a day after these guys
	reach out to me. This is May 5th now, okay?
	I have Erica Thompson message me and say hi George I would just like to let you know that Alexander Downer
	just wants to meet with you now this Alexander Downer for all the listeners. This isn't a random
	low-level Australian diplomat. This is This man ran the equivalent of the CIA in Australia for 17 years.
	He was a foreign minister, and he was their biggest diplomat in London.
	He wants to meet with you over drinks.
	Now, on May 10th, I go to this meeting.
	So remember, I have an Israeli diplomat, I have an Australian intelligence officer, I have this strange interview with the Times of London, I have U.S.
	intelligence officers and then Downer meeting with me, okay?
	So this wasn't a random meeting.
	This was all very orchestrated.
	I go to meet Downer.
	Within one minute or two minutes of sitting down with this person, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and he starts holding it up to me as if he's filming me or taking a picture or something very strange.
	And that is why I was always under the suspicion that this guy was filming me.
	Recording my conversation and now there's evidence that he was actually recording this conversation and he didn't want to talk about the US-Australia relationship.
	He basically was there to pass a message along from the UK to Trump to stop, you know, supporting Brexit.
	Remember Brexit was the thing everyone was worried about at the time in the UK and that, you know, Trump is a pariah.
	And I never in my life talked about emails with this person.
	So wait, this is important.
	He doesn't bring up this email thing at all?
	Because George, as you well know, the New York Times did a big expose in December alleging that it is this boozy meeting, that you were thoroughly intoxicated and you happened to slip out that the Russians had emails on Hillary.
	Now, Are you saying none of that happened?
	I'm telling you I have zero, like I said, I remember so much about this meeting and I have zero memory whatsoever of ever talking about emails.
	So I'm confident that I never did talk about emails.
	I have no memory of talking about emails.
	Does Hillary come up?
	I'll get to that in one second of how she came up.
	but what Downer has done in subsequent interviews he's given lately is he's contradicted himself
	at least three times about what was actually said at this meeting.
	Not even Downer knows what he's talking about.
	And then people always ask me, well, how would he know?
	How would he pass this information apparently?
	And I said, how would Mifsud know?
	I mean, Mifsud knew it the week before Downer did.
	And I also find it very strange that Downer just wanted to meet around 10 days after MIPSA tells me
	this information.
	The whole thing seems very strange and very orchestrated, but what I'm telling... Almost like they were trying to pull the information they pushed into you through Mifsud out to use to set up you as a middleman.
	I mean, it's perfectly logical at this point.
	Yeah, I mean, I completely agree with what you're saying.
	But George, I don't mean to interrupt because you're more important than I am here, but It makes sense with all these multiple meetings then, with the DIA officials, the intel connected people.
	It seems that there were multiple interactions with you, from my perspective as a former LEO, law enforcement officer.
	To try to get you to just volunteer this information about these Russian emails or this Russian dirt, the information they'd pushed into you, right?
	But you're not giving it up because there's nothing to give.
	So that's when I think downer and maybe the frustration sets in.
	But what I'm still perplexed about is how would the New York Times, where are they getting this information from?
	That one, if you could just address these couple things.
	One, were you drunk?
	Absolutely not.
	I had one drink, Downer had one drink, and the meeting was not a pleasant one at all.
	No one was sitting there drinking or getting drunk.
	Because that's important, because I think what the New York Times wants people to believe is that in a moment of drunken peak, you slipped and released this classified information.
	We now know you were not intoxicated, as alleged in some of those pieces by the New York Times, but secondly, Why do you think they invested so much of their journalistic integrity into putting out this article based on a source that there was this big conversation about you talking about emails if both you and Downer, the two participants, both of you are saying it didn't happen.
	What is going on?
	What are we missing?
	You know what?
	This is my theory, okay?
	I believe, you know, like we said, there was a lot of disinformation.
	This was a disinformation campaign.
	This whole Operation was just orchestrated to have me set up in various traps.
	Okay.
	Now, what I really think happened is that Stefan Halper's role was to cover for Alexander Downer so that Alexander Downer would never have to be revealed as a source for this potential fake information.
	Okay.
	Because obviously there were recordings of Halper.
	So even if you know, he wanted to say Papadopoulos said this.
	If I didn't say it, they could never have used it.
	So what I think happened is they found this mope, Alexander Downer, who just, you know, for all the listeners out there, you know, he, he invested $25 million into the Clinton Foundation.
	He was part of the uranium stuff with Russia.
	He's a big Clinton ally.
	And I think he was just willfully part of this group that was used to just create this fake story.
	that Papadopoulos told me this information and he's just used as a pretext for an investigation.
	There's absolutely no other explanation because I never remember telling him this information
	about emails and in his interviews he's given, he himself has stated the same thing that
	Papadopoulos never mentioned emails. So I don't know what's going on except that, you know,
	somebody may have screwed up. George, this makes a lot of sense and explains the animosity of
	Halper and others towards you as you fail to relay to them that you have information about Russian
	Think about it, right?
	They throw all these people out at you.
	They're not getting anything.
	Everything fails.
	Finally, the agency or some folks working with Halper go, hey, brother, this is our last shot.
	You better get this information about these emails out of George.
	That explains why he's sweating, and he was getting angry at you when you weren't talking about the emails.
	And exactly.
	And think of it this way.
	Let's say I told Alexander Downer that information in May, which let's just assume for a minute, right?
	Why, then, would you need Stephen Halper, four months later, to come out of the blue and try and make me repeat, apparently, the same thing I just told Alexander Downer?
	Isn't Alexander Downer a strong enough witness, especially if he was recording my conversation?
	What was the point of Halper?
	I think he's a very important person in this entire saga, and we need to get to the bottom of what he was really up to.
	I think you're right.
	He is a source to cover their use of foreign intelligence people who were in diplomatic posts.
	I think it makes perfect sense.
	George, one last question.
	I'll let you go.
	You've been very generous with your time.
	Glenn Simpson is up on Capitol Hill at one point.
	He testifies up there and he says on the record, I think I have an idea, but I can't share that, unfortunately.
	But I'm certain that there was a spy within the campaign.
	There might have been more.
	multiple, he tried to cover himself, said he read it in the paper, although it hadn't been exposed
	at the paper at the time. Do you have any idea who that could have been and why Simpson would
	have said that? I think I have an idea, but I can't share that, unfortunately. But I'm certain
	that there was a spy within the campaign. There might have been more. Maybe Simpson is talking
	about another spy. It might not be the same person that I know was spying.
	So without disclosing any identities or anything you're uncomfortable with, you're confident, I saw your tweet as well, but you're confident there was someone actively inside the Trump campaign that was not there to help the Trump campaign but was in fact feeding information to another entity?
	Absolutely.
	And this is a person that probably no one has really heard of because he was a, he was a low level player, but, uh, he was connected to, uh, our intelligence people.
	So, um, just that, that information will definitely come out.
	Congress knows who it is and I'm sure, uh, in a report or whatever they're going to release, uh, they'll probably be releasing him as a confidential source because I think America deserves to know the truth.
	Wow.
	Fascinating.
	Folks, that was George Papadopoulos.
	George, I really appreciate your time.
	That was just, I just texted Joe as I said to you during that little break there.
	That was really incredible stuff.
	Yeah, you're Papa D on the show.
	Papa D is the key.
	Everybody loves that.
	So thanks for your time.
	I know the feedback on this is going to be absolutely incredible.
	You were very generous.
	I really appreciate it.
	And you're welcome back anytime with any updates.
	So I'll let you go, George.
	Thanks a lot.
	And I will chat with you soon.
	Thanks so much for your time.
	Thanks so much, guys.
	I appreciate it.
	It's going to be great.
	Thanks.
	See you later.
	Take care.
	All right, Joe.
	Wow.
	What do you say about that one, huh?
	All right, folks, that was George Papadopoulos.
	We really appreciate it.
	Again, my show is The Dan Bongino Show.
	Please subscribe on iTunes, on SoundCloud, on iHeartRadio, or you can listen to the show at bongino.com for free.
	Also, pick up my book on this matter, Spygate.
	It's a meticulously researched book with extensive footnotes on everything that was just covered in that interview.
	You'll see in some pretty intricate details available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, You just heard the Dan Bongino Show.
	Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com.
	You can also get Dan's podcasts on iTunes or SoundCloud.

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