On April 26, 2016, George Papadopoulos exchanged emails with a London academic who informed him that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” Even though Papadoulos’s FBI Statement of Offense mentions many conversations between Papadopoulos and Trump campaign officials that happened after that date, on one point the statement is silent—what did Papadopoulos say about the emails?
It was known that Papadopoulos communicated with the campaign on the day after Joseph Mifsud told him about the emails. It wasn’t clear who Papadopoulos talked to at that point, or if the emails were the subject of that discussion. Now both those things have been cleared up.
Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos told senior policy adviser Stephen Miller in an email last April that he had received an "interesting message" from Russia — one day after learning that the Kremlin had apparent "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
So the chain of information about the stolen emails proceeded from Moscow, to Mifsud, to Papadopoulos, to Miller. Which goes a long way toward explaining why Miller was asked to make a special unscripted appearance.
White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has been interviewed as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Mueller’s grilling of Miller also apparently focused on Miller’s involvement in writing the first draft of the letter Trump delivered in firing James Comey—a letter so obvious in its obstructionism that White House Council Don McGahn warned Trump not to use it. Mueller has that letter now.
Miller’s version of the Comey letter hasn’t been made public, but it’s likely to emerge at some point.
Stephen Miller, Trump's policy adviser who's an ally of Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, helped draft the letter, The Times said. Miller has emerged as a hardline and exceedingly loyal player in the Trump administration. Given Trump's displeasure with Comey leading up to his firing, it is likely that Miller helped Trump draft a letter that appealed to his more incendiary instincts.
The revelation that Miller was the “Senior Policy Advisor” in Papadopoulos’s FBI statement puts Miller in position as possibly the first person in Trump’s central campaign to know about the stolen DNC emails. It also means that Papadopoulos had previously exchanged notes with Miller over Russia’s willingness to meet with Trump.
It’s also particularly interesting that while most of Papadopoulos’s communications noted in the statement either took place with Sam Clovis or Paul Manafort, the first person he called on learning about the emails was Miller—which suggests that Papadopoulos had some reason to think that Miller was the go-to person on information of this sort.
That the information was passed along to Miller also means that the nature of the Clinton “dirt” was clear to the Trump campaign over a month before Rob Goldstone contacted Donald Trump Jr. to arrange the Trump Tower meeting. The campaign’s pre-knowledge of the emails allowed that meeting to be more about what the Russians wanted in payment than the details of what Russia had to offer.
And completing the payment on that deal is still a big concern to Donald Trump.
Trump added that he thinks Putin “is very insulted by” the scandal – if there’s one thing the American president should be concerned about, it’s Vladimir Putin’s feelings – and that “people will die” as a result of the controversy.