in Greece.”157 Curiously, Kammenos was in D.C., attending the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference, on the day Trump convened his national security advisory committee for the first time at the Trump International Hotel—the event at which Papadopoulos revealed to Trump that he had been tasked by the Kremlin to act as an “intermediary” in setting up a secret Trump-Putin summit.158 It is unclear if Papadopoulos met Kammenos in Washington in late March 2016, though Kammenos’s extraordinary commitment to introducing Papadopoulos to powerful figures in Athens five weeks later suggests it is possible.
By the time Papadopoulos returns to Greece in late May 2016—a trip that occurs while Vladimir Putin is also in Athens—he is, according to the Post, “quietly holding meetings across town and confiding in hushed tones that he [is] there [in Athens] on a sensitive mission on behalf of his boss, Donald Trump.”159 The nature of the mission, at least in part, is, according to Papachelas’s interview with Papadopoulos at the time, to “secretly plan[] a pre-election trip by Trump to Greece and Israel, which he [Papadopoulos] saw taking place that July.”160 Whether the campaign’s decision to have Papadopoulos travel to Greece while Putin is there is indeed connected to a “secret plan” to have Trump visit Greece and Israel in July is unclear; however, Papadopoulos had just weeks earlier told Trump that the Kremlin wanted him to set up a Trump-Putin summit, preferably in a neutral city—and being in Athens while Putin’s entourage was there would afford him an excellent opportunity to try to do so.161
The day before Putin’s scheduled meeting in Athens with the Greek foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias, Papadopoulos meets with Kotzias and tells him he knows the Kremlin possesses “thousands” of Hillary Clinton’s emails.162 He does so immediately after—and in response to—Kotzias saying to Papadopoulos that “where you are sitting right now, tomorrow Putin will be sitting there.”163 In an interview he will give to CNN in September 2018, Papadopoulos will say that at the time it was “his impression” that “the Russians [were] trying to hire [him] to be a source for them.”164 As to whether, by May 2016, Papadopoulos had already told the Trump campaign about the Kremlin’s possession of the Clinton emails, Papadopoulos will cryptically tell CNN, “At this time, I don’t remember.” When CNN’s Jake Tapper reminds him of Trump aide John Mashburn’s congressional testimony that he received an email from Papadopoulos informing the campaign of the Kremlin’s crimes, Papadopoulos comments, “I don’t think that proof has been provided.”165 Pressed by Tapper as to whether he might have told anyone on the Trump campaign about the Clinton emails—in the same way he had told the Greek foreign minister in May 2016, despite having just met him and not being in his employ—Papadopoulos will finally answer, “I might have,” adding that he “can’t guarantee” he didn’t.166 Papadopoulos also will concede to Tapper that it’s “possible” he told the Australian ambassador during a meeting in London just a few weeks before he traveled to Greece that “the Russians might use material that they have on Hillary Clinton.”167
It is just a week after Papadopoulos’s meeting with Kotzias that Trump’s son Don Jr. receives—via Rob Goldstone—a message from the son of one of Trump’s Russian business partners stating that the Kremlin has “documents and information that would incriminate Hillary.”168
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In mid-June 2016, WikiLeaks announces that it has “emails relating to Hillary Clinton which are pending publication,” and the Democratic National Committee announces that it has just discovered it was hacked in April by the Russian government, a hack later determined to have been conducted by Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU.169 The same week as the DNC announcement, the GRU begins disseminating the materials it stole.170 As for the emails the GRU stole from the Clinton campaign’s employees and volunteers in March, many of these will indeed ultimately be released by WikiLeaks in October 2016.171 In mid-June, however, the Trump campaign erroneously believes that these materials will be coming out in late June or early July, having heard from Roger Stone that WikiLeaks will shortly be releasing materials damaging to Clinton.172 WikiLeaks ultimately publishes stolen DNC emails in July, leading to Trump being “generally frustrated that the Clinton emails had not been found” or, if found, not yet released.173 Meanwhile, Manafort “express[es] excitement” about WikiLeaks’ July release and asks to be “kept apprised” of any new information about future releases.174 The Mueller Report will broadly conclude that “the Trump Campaign showed