https://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-republicans-seek-release-of-secret-papadopoulos-transcriptsFormer Rep. Trey Gowdy stunned House investigators recently by all but announcing the existence of secret FBI recordings of Trump campaign foreign policy volunteer adviser George Papadopoulos, made in the summer of 2016 by an undercover FBI operation.
Gowdy made the revelation in an interview Sunday with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo.
"There are a lot of serious questions that need to be asked" during Attorney General William Barr's investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, Gowdy said. Among them: "Where are the transcripts, if any exist, between the informants and the telephone calls to George Papadopoulos?"
Papadopoulos, an energy consultant, was approached by at least two FBI informants in London in 2016. One was an academic, Stefan Halper, who had a long relationship with the FBI, and the other was an undercover investigator who went by the alias "Azra Turk."
The reason Papadopoulos' experience is so important is because the FBI has cited it as the reason the bureau officially began the Trump-Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, on July 31, 2016. The FBI said that Australian diplomats, who talked with Papadopoulos in London, told U.S. government officials that Papadopoulos said Russia had damaging information about Hillary Clinton. After that, the FBI reportedly sent "Azra Turk" to London and also used other resources to find out what was going on with Papadopoulos. They created a record of their work, according to Gowdy.
"If the bureau is going to send an informant in, the informant is going to be wired," Gowdy said. "And if the bureau is monitoring telephone calls, there's going to be a transcript of that."
Gowdy cast his statement as a hypothetical, but it did not veil much of anything. "Some of us have been fortunate to know whether or not those transcripts exist, but they haven't been made public," he said.
Gowdy strongly suggested at least one of the transcripts has information that would be exculpatory for Papadopoulos.
"Very little in this Russia probe, I'm afraid, is going to persuade people who hate Trump or who love Trump," he said. "But there is some information in these transcripts that I think has the potential to be a game-changer, if it's ever made public."
"You say there's exculpatory evidence," replied Bartiromo, "and when people see that, they're going to say, wait, why wasn't this presented to the court earlier?"
"Yes," said Gowdy. "You know, [Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe] is rightfully exercised over the obligations that the government has to tell the whole truth to a court when you are seeking permission to spy or do surveillance on an American. And part of that includes the responsibility of providing exculpatory information or information that tends to show the person didn't do something wrong. If you have exculpatory information, and you don't share it with the court, that ain't good. I have seen it. [Ratcliffe] has seen it. I would love for your viewers to see it."
Gowdy did not say so directly, but he clearly suggested the transcripts could change some views of the origins and legitimacy of the Trump-Russia investigation. In this way: The FBI received the Australian information. It dispatched investigators to London to learn what was going on with Papadopoulos. If the investigators confirmed the Australians' tip, then the investigation would surely continue and intensify.
But what if the FBI did not confirm the Australians' information? And what if, after failing to confirm that information, the bureau pressed on with the If the FBI is going to open a spy op on political opponents based on a bar conversation they set up on a minor campaign guy we have a problem.
Its not a crime to run a campaign. The idiots crying about this have no problem with Hillary getting dirt on Trump. Its a campaign not a church picnic. Hillary did collude with the Russians
So go ahead and ignore all this and come back tomorrow telling the same lies