A few weeks later, around 10 May 2016, Papadopoulos met former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer at the Kensington Wine Rooms in London and (according to Downer) told him that Russia had “dirt” on Clinton. Downer said he passed that information on to Australian intelligence agencies. That information eventually set the official Russiagate investigation in motion.

But Papadopoulos insists he never talked about Mifsud’s “dirt” information during his one hour meeting with Downer (although he does admit passing that information on to Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias on 26 May 2016). Papadopoulos’ book claims Downer was aggressive and recorded their conversation, which Downer denies.

“The phone comes out again. He must have grabbed it and held it up at least four times. He is so aggressive, so hostile… I believe Australian and UK intelligence were involved in an active operation to target Trump and his associates.”

In an oddly disengaged 30 minute July 2019 podcast Downer said his meeting with Papadopoulos was suggested by the Israeli embassy in London. While rudely eating, grunting, snorting and tapping what sound like glasses and spoons, Downer frequently indulges in strange hypothetical musings about whether what he just stated as fact might actually not be true.

“I wasn’t recording him. I wouldn’t as a diplomat record meetings that I had with people. That would be very unprofessional. But I suppose logically if I did record it, I’d have a copy of the recording. So everything he said would be on the record. But no, we didn’t have a recording of it. If I was playing with my phone during the meeting, it would have been because I was checking my SMS messages and my emails, which I don’t think you should do during a meeting, but occasionally I do do.”

He claimed it was just a friendly chat – with another official “who worked at Australia House at the time” present – and laughed at the idea he might be involved in a grand conspiracy.

“This sort of idea that there’s a kind of ASIS, ASIO, MI6, MI5, FBI, CIA, Ukrainian government or something like that… some 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 sort of thought seriously. “

Perhaps I am “a little bit sad”. In this article I will examine what we know about Australia’s involvement in the Russiagate saga. The Australian media do not seem to be very interested.