Donald Trump asked Australia to help investigate the Mueller probe. What's it got to do with impeachment?

Updated

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australia's former high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alexander Downer, have been dragged into the unfolding impeachment scandal surrounding US President Donald Trump.

Their involvement is linked to a previous issue faced by the White House — special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Here's what you need to know.

Why is Trump asking Morrison about Mueller?

Because Australia played a small, but central role in launching the original FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Keep in mind that investigation would later become special counsel Mueller's investigation, which Mr Trump has long railed against as a "witch hunt".

Key to this was a meeting in London in May 2016 between Australia's then UK high commissioner, Mr Downer, and Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.

Mr Downer told the ABC's Russia if You're Listening podcast that the Trump campaign aide was confident of victory in the coming presidential election.

Russia If You're Listening The night at the wine rooms

A meeting at a fancy wine bar in London between Australia’s top diplomat in the UK and a Trump campaign official sparked the Mueller inquiry. But what really happened that night? About

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A meeting at a fancy wine bar in London between Australia’s top diplomat in the UK and a Trump campaign official sparked the Mueller inquiry. But what really happened that night?

"He said one of the reasons was that the Russians might release some information which could be damaging to Hillary Clinton," Mr Downer said.

Mr Downer thought that was important enough to send a message back to Australia.

Australia then forwarded Mr Downer's message to US intelligence officials, soon after Wikileaks released its first batch of stolen documents in July 2016.

The Mueller report (while not mentioning Australia by name) later confirmed that information from a "foreign government" prompted the FBI to "open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities".

TL;DR? Information provided by Australia, about a meeting Mr Downer had with Mr Papadopoulos, was one of the key things that led the FBI to start investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Mr Papadopoulos has denied telling Mr Downer about the information, and has claimed multiple times the former high commissioner was part of an international conspiracy to stop Mr Trump from being elected.

Mr Downer has said those accusations were "a little bit sad" and denied having any ulterior motive.

You can read Russia, If You're Listening's full account of the meeting (which is based on a rare interview with Mr Downer on the subject) here.

Got it, so what did Mr Trump ask Mr Morrison for?

We're starting to get a picture of how this all unfolded:

Mr Mueller submitted his final report on March 22

In May, US Attorney-General William Barr launched his own inquiry examining the origins of the Mueller probe

Later that same month, Australia's ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey wrote to Mr Barr confirming that Australia would "use its best endeavours to support your efforts in this matter"

In June, the ABC learned that Mr Hockey and Mr Barr met at the Australian embassy in Washington DC. It remains unclear what that meeting was about

The ABC understands the initial conversation between Mr Trump and Mr Morrison about the investigation happened months ago. The New York Times reports the White House curbed access to the call

Late last month, Mr Morrison met Mr Trump as part of his state visit to the US

The White House has confirmed to the ABC that Mr Trump asked Mr Morrison for help investigating the origins of the Mueller investigation.

The Australian Government on Tuesday morning backed up Mr Hockey's letter of support, and said Australia "has already been ready to assist and cooperate with efforts that help shed further light on matters under investigation".

As The New York Times points out, the request was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself.

Why is Barr involved in all this?

According to The New York Times, Mr Barr asked Mr Trump to make the call to Mr Morrison to help with the inquiry about the origins of the Mueller investigation.

It's aiming to determine whether the intelligence officers who began the 2016 probe acted appropriately.

Just before launching the investigation, Mr Barr told a congressional committee that "spying" on the Trump White House had occurred as part of the Mueller probe.

Mr Trump, who frequently mentions the Mueller probe as evidence of his mistreatment as President, praised the Attorney-General's decision to launch the inquiry and said he hoped Mr Barr "looks at the UK, and I hope he looks at Australia, and I hope he looks at Ukraine".

"I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country," Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump has said that he did not direct Mr Barr to open the inquiry.

The Justice Department issued a statement confirming that the President had contacted other countries to introduce them to Mr Barr during the course of the inquiry.

White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley reiterated this in a statement to the ABC.

"This call [with Mr Morrison] relates to a DOJ inquiry publicly announced months ago to uncover exactly what happened," he said.

"The DOJ simply requested that the President provide introductions to facilitate that ongoing inquiry, and he did so, that's all."

US media outlets are reporting that Mr Barr has recently travelled to Italy to ask the Italian Government to assist in the investigation. He has reportedly also spoken to British intelligence officials regarding the matter.

What's this got to do with the impeachment inquiry?

Mr Barr was also named in a log of the July phone call between Mr Trump and the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The call reveals that Mr Trump asked the newly elected Ukrainian leader to help the US investigate his 2020 rival Joe Biden and Mr Biden's son.

The call is the subject of an anonymous whistleblower's complaint that led the Democratic Party to launch an impeachment inquiry into the President.

"I am going to have Attorney-General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it," Mr Trump says. "I'm sure you will figure it out."

The Justice Department has said that Mr Trump never told Mr Barr about the Ukranian call, and the call between Mr Barr and Mr Zelenskiy never happened.

One of the key accusations in this impeachment inquiry is that Mr Trump has pressured foreign governments to investigate his political rivals and that evidence of those requests have been covered up.

Democrats will likely latch onto Mr Trump's call to Mr Morrison for help, along with his phone call with Mr Zelenskiy, as further evidence of those accusations.

It's likely to intensify pressure on Mr Barr to testify before Congress, as Democrats probe whether or not Mr Trump is abusing his presidential power to further investigations that help him politically.

Can anyone in Australia be investigated?

No.

The committees leading the impeachment inquiry have issued a flurry of subpoenas to key players in this story.

But their jurisdiction is limited to the United States. They can't compel the Australian Government, by law, to provide documents related to this phone call.

They could ask for it, but Australia doesn't have to co-operate.

Topics: donald-trump, world-politics, government-and-politics, united-states

First posted