WASHINGTON: The FBI reportedly launched its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election after George Papadopoulos, then a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump told an Australian diplomat that Moscow had damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos reportedly told Downer that Russian officials possessed thousands of emails that could harm Clinton’s candidacy. When WikiLeaks began publishing hacked emails from Democratic officials two months later, Australian officials passed the information to their US counterparts, the Times report stated. But US officials told the NYT Steele’s research was not the catalyst for the counterintelligence inquiry into Russian election interference. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general who led the foreign policy team, has claimed he told Papadopoulos to stand down.

Source: Pakistan Today December 31, 2017 00:11 UTC