John Ratcliffe
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) on Wednesday suggested that the FBI had exculpatory evidence, perhaps secret transcripts on George Papadopoulos, yet withheld it from the FISA court.
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Former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy stunned the Democrat-media complex last month when he strongly suggested there are secret transcripts of Papadopoulos’ conversations with FBI informants.
Former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos was approached by at least two FBI informants in March and April of 2016 while he was in London, Stephan Halper and his honeypot assistant “Azra Turk.”
While in London, Papadopoulos also met with Australian diplomat Alexander Downer who tried to plant dirt on the Trump campaign advisor by bringing up the Russians possibly being in possession of Hillary’s ‘missing’ emails…Papadopoulos didn’t bite because he felt like the meeting with Downer was suspicious.
The very existence of these secret Papadopoulos transcripts is classified and not yet publicly confirmed.
“There are a lot of serious questions that need to be asked” during Barr’s investigation into the origins of Spygate, Gowdy said last month. Among them: “Where are the transcripts, if any exist, between the informants and the telephone calls to George Papadopoulos?”
“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 acted like he was speaking in the hypothetical, but he pretty much admitted there are transcripts. “Some of us have been fortunate to know whether or not those transcripts exist, but they haven’t been made public,” he said.
“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.”
On Wednesday, Congressman Ratcliffe suggested the FBI had exculpatory evidence on Papadopoulos (secret transcripts?) yet they did not disclose it in their FISA affidavit.
“I want to ask you about the obligations as it relates to exculpatory information — as you know in a criminal case we have what’s called the Brady Rule where the government has an obligation upon request to provide any exculpatory information to the defendant that the government may have,” Ratcliffe said. “We know in this case that the FBI has asserted that the underlying predicate for this counterintelligence investigation was George Papadopoulos and the conversation that he had allegedly with and Australian diplomat.”
Ratcliffe suggested the FBI withheld this exculpatory information even though they are obligated to present it to the court.
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