How a Drunken Coffee Boy May Have Kick Started the Russia Probe

Whoa. Be careful of drunken boasting. It may come back to bite you.

According to a new report in the New York Times on Saturday, the ongoing Russia probe may have its origins based in the drunken braggadocio of George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser… aka… “coffee boy” to the Trump campaign.

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According to the report, in May 2016, after a night of drinking, Papadopoulos told Australian diplomat Alexander Downer that the Russians were shopping out dirt they had on Hillary Clinton, and may have implied that they were shopping that dirt to the Trump campaign.

When the leaked DNC emails became public, Australian officials alerted U.S. officials to what they’d heard, and this was the likely impetus for the probe that began in July 2016.

Papadopoulos apparently shared information provided to him by Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor with ties to Moscow officials, who told him that the Russians had “thousands of emails” obtained by hackers from the DNC that had yet to be released, and that detailed controversial dealings between Clinton and the DNC’s fundraising apparatus.

It is unclear how much information the aide shared with Downer or how the topic came up. It is also not clear whether Papadopoulos had told the campaign at that point about his conversations with Mifsud.

Mifsud also introduced Papadopoulos to a Russian woman named Olga Polonskaya, falsely telling the campaign aide she was a niece of Vladimir Putin, in an apparent effort to connect the Russian president with then-candidate Donald Trump.

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Papadopoulos and Mifsud were in contact for months, attempting to work out the particulars of having Trump and Putin meet.

The coffee boy even told campaign adviser Stephen Miller about “interesting messages” coming from Moscow, and discussed a trip to Russia.

Papadopoulos’ push to get Trump and Putin together became a central focus for investigators, as they consider possible collusion between the campaign and Russia.

The coffee boy has found himself in hot water (I know – horrible pun) over his involvement, and pleaded guilty in November of lying to the FBI about his contact with Mifsud and Polonskaya, over the course of his involvement with the campaign.

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