US President Donald Trump directly asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to cough up information about the origins of the massive FBI inquiry into the 2016 US election, according to an explosive new report.
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The New York Times states Trump, who has long criticised the FBI’s investigation into whether his campaign sought help from Russia to discredit election opponent Hillary Clinton, used a recent telephone call to seek intel from Morrison.
The call has not yet been released by White House officials.
The conversation took place as Trump’s Attorney General William Barr leads a counter-inquiry into the FBI investigation, which the president hopes will exonerate him of the FBI investigation’s negative findings.
If you’re wondering what Morrison has to do with all of this: Australia just so happens to have played a pivotal role in the 2016 investigation.
It kicked off when former High Commissioner to the UK and one-time Foreign Minister Alexander Downer alerted the FBI to the possibility that a Trump campaign employee garnered intelligence on Clinton from Russian government sources.
Seeking a foreign government’s help to sway an election is a big no-no in the United States, and everywhere else operating under the pretences of sovereign democracy, and many people thought the ensuing FBI investigation would see Trump ousted from the White House.
That didn’t come to pass. The final FBI report, compiled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, did not drop the hammer on Trump in the way his opponents had hoped – but, crucially, it did not exonerate him.
Speaking after Barr offered his own positive spin on the report, Mueller said “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” Trump is still festering about those findings, despite his repeated Tweets about there being “NO COLLUSION”.
NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION, TOTAL EXONERATION. DEMOCRAT WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
All of this begs the question: is Morrison’s government prepared to help out Barr’s inquiry, potentially outlining the actions of its own diplomat in the process?
The answer is yes.
“The Australian Government has always been ready to assist and cooperate with efforts that help shed further light on the matters under investigation,” a federal government spokesperson confirmed this morning to the ABC.
“The PM confirmed this readiness once again in conversation with the President.”
Rock and roll. Watch this space, folks.
