New Developments Re Papadopoulos And Mifsud?

Fox News is reporting tonight--Durham's probe into possible FBI misconduct expanded based on new evidence:

U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's 2016 Russia probe has expanded based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr, sources told Fox News on Tuesday. 

The sources said Durham was "very interested" to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea. 

The two Obama administration officials were at the helm when the unverified and largely discredited Steele dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page. 

In Italy, Barr reportedly told embassy officials he "needed a conference room to meet high-level Italian security agents where he could be sure no one was listening in." 

A source in the Italian Ministry of Justice told The Daily Beast earlier this month that Barr and Durham were played a taped deposition made by Joseph Mifsud, the professor who allegedly told ex-Trump aide George Papadopoulos that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Mifsud reportedly was explaining to authorities in the deposition why people would want to harm him, and why he needed police protection.

Papadopoulos has suggested he was connected with Mifsud as part of a setup orchestrated by intelligence agencies.

What would this misconduct--specific to the FBI--be, and what connection would it have with Mifsud? This is speculation, but my guess is that what Barr and Durham learned to their satisfaction in Rome was that the FBI knew Papadopoulos had no Russian connection but that the FBI targeted him anyway--essentially to pressure him into providing false or misleading testimony.

Follow the link for the interview with George Papadopoulos.

Separately, Fox is also reporting that

Additionally, documents obtained by Fox News confirmed that Australia proactively offered support for Barr's review, and seemingly contradicted reporting that Trump was pressuring other countries to assist. 

... 

"If the rumors are true that IG Horowitz’s report and findings in Durham’s review will blast the conduct of the FBI’s Russia investigation, it will give Trump a lot of ammo to support his argument that he was unjustly targeted then and is being unjustly targeted now," a House GOP source told Fox News on Tuesday. "It will justify Trump’s warnings about the Deep State acting to hobble his presidency."

All of this is looking like a powerful counterattack to the Dem's absurd "all roads lead to Putin" narrative. As absurd as Hillary's "everyone I don't like is a Russian asset" line of attack.