New York: Alexander Downer has distanced himself from a bizarre Twitter tirade launched against him by Donald Trump's former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, saying "I'll leave others to make judgments about the veracity of those tweets".

Papadopoulos, who was last week sentenced to 14 days in jail for lying to the FBI, sent out a series of tweets suggesting Downer was part of an elaborate conspiracy involving British spy agency MI6 and "private intelligence organisations" to damage the Trump campaign.

He even included a reference that the former Australian foreign minister had once worn women's stockings.

George Papadopoulos, former campaign adviser to Donald Trump, arrives for sentencing at federal court in Washington. Credit:Bloomberg

Mr Downer, who is still based in London, but collected an honorary doctorate at the University of Adelaide on Tuesday, made it clear he believed the contents of the tweets to be baseless, and indicated he had not been following the Papadopoulos trial.