Matt Bevan

So when the Australians told us that this had happened, that's when we started the investigation.

So we started the investigation because of this meeting.

That's right.

And it all started because of this report from Alexander Downer, is what they say.

So was Papadopoulos saying that Downer had set him?

Yes.

Papadopoulos was saying to the New York Times and to anyone who would listen, including me, in our conversation, that he thought that this was all an elaborate setup by the FBI, the CIA, the Australian intelligence agencies, possibly Ukrainian intelligence for some reason.

All of these agencies were all working together because they wanted to start an investigation into the

Trump, they wanted to derail his campaign, derail his presidency by accusing him of having links to Russia and that they manufactured this whole story out of the Downer meeting.

Absolutely.

I found out about this story on New Year's Day 2018.

I was filling in for Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast and there was this story that came up that the American, you know, the Trump administration and this guy, George Papadopoulos, was accusing Alexander Downer, our guy, Alexander Downer, you know,

The guy that we all know of and we know all these things about, this famous Australian politician of being basically James Bond.

And it just sounded so ridiculous.

And I spoke to the New York Times reporter about it and he was like, well, yes, it's possible that we're following all the leads and we're going to find out if he was maybe a spy.

And it's like, trust me, man, he's not a spy.

He was baffled by the whole thing.

He was baffled by it.

He couldn't believe that all of this trouble had come out of this thing.

And he couldn't believe that he was being accused of being sympathetic to Hillary Clinton and being a key player in some sort of a...