Article snippet: Former Trump campaign adviser MORE. Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, in May 2016 allegedly revealed to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer that Russian officials were shopping possible dirt on Clinton, likely implying that Russian officials were shopping them to the Trump campaign, The New York Times reported Saturday. Four former and current officials with knowledge of the situation told the Times that Australian officials then informed their U.S. counterparts, which may have then triggered the July 2016 investigation. The Australian diplomats forwarded the information when leaked Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails began to surface online. Papadopoulos apparently shared information provided to him by Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor with ties to Moscow officials, who told him that the Russians had "thousands of emails" obtained by hackers from the DNC that had yet to be released, and that detailed controversial dealings between Clinton and the DNC's fundraising apparatus. It is unclear how much information the aide shared with Downer or how the topic came up. It is also not clear whether Papadopoulos had told the campaign at that point about his conversations with Mifsud. Mifsud also introduced Papadopoulos to a Russian woman named Olga Polonskaya, falsely telling the campaign aide she was a niece of Vladimir Putin, in an apparent effort to connect the Russian president with then-candidate MORE. The two men... Link to the full article to read more