The Papadopoulos affair: such a Downer

In September 2016, Michael Smith, an Australian investigative journalist and former police detective, reported that this agreement opened the door to the mishandling of millions of dollars by the Clinton Foundation. According to Smith, shortly after the Memorandum of Understanding had been signed, the Clinton Foundation incorporated an entity to fight AIDS in Papua New Guinea. In July 2006, that entity, the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (“CHAI”), entered into a funding agreement with the Australian government to receive $10,000,000. Under that agreement, CHAI was to begin work in August 2006.

Even though CHAI already had the contract, the Australian government later published an invitation for bids to perform the exact same task. As noted by Smith, this kind of pre-textual advertising is deceptive and a classic marker for fraud. Applying Australian law to this process, Smith concluded, “Inviting tenders [bids] for a contract that has already been given meets the criminal points of proof for Obtaining a Financial Advantage (for self or another) by Deception. It’s a cover up, something that is not what it purports to be.”

In July 2009, the CHAI program was audited. While noting the program’s positive aspects, the audit questioned the manner in which the contract was awarded and then left unmanaged. The report pointed out that there was “no stated objective/outcome” in the agreement or any subsequent program documents. In the absence of a clear statement of objectives, “it is not possible to say with any degree of confidence whether CHAI has been effective.”

In short, the audit described yet another taxpayer-funded Clinton Foundation boondoggle where nobody knows how the money was spent. This one was served up to the Australian taxpayers by none other than the same Alexander Downer who ten years later would just happen to cross paths with George Papadopoulos while Bill Clinton’s wife was running for president. And also by happy chance, Downer was able to help the Clintons by getting a drunken Papadopoulos to talk about about the Russians having dirt on Mrs. Clinton. What a remarkable string of coincidences!

But, among us old law enforcement types, there is a tried and true axiom that, in life, there is no such thing as a coincidence. Which raises the question as to whether Downer’s conversation with Papadopoulos was a matter of serendipity or part of a carefully orchestrated scheme calculated to benefit the Clinton campaign.