WASHINGTON: Information shared by Australia helped spark the FBI’s probe into Russia’s attempts to disrupt the US presidential election and possible collusion by Donald Trump’s campaign, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat in May 2016 that Russia had political dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the Times reported.

The conversation between Papadopoulos and Downer in London was a driving factor behind the FBI’s decision to open a counter-intelligence investigation of Moscow’s contacts with the Trump campaign, the Times reported.

The conversation took place in bar after Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Clinton, the Democratic presidential challenger in the election which Trump won.

Two months after the meeting, Australian officials passed the information that came from Papadopoulos to their American counterparts when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, according to the newspaper, which cited four current and former US and foreign officials.

Besides the information from the Australians, the probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was also propelled by intelligence from other friendly governments, including the British and Dutch, the Times said.

The report added that it was unclear whether Downer was “fishing” for information during the Papadopoulos meeting, which came about because of a series of connections that began with an Israeli embassy official.

It is also not clear why the Australian government waited two months to pass the information to the FBI, the Times said.

The Times said, citing four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.

“It was firsthand information from one of America’s closest intelligence allies” that alarmed the FBI and helped prompt them to begin investigating, the Times said.

Papadopoulos, a Chicago-based international energy lawyer, pleaded guilty on Oct.30 to lying to FBI agents about contacts with people who claimed to have ties to top Russian officials.

It was the first criminal charge alleging links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The White House has played down the former aide’s campaign role, saying it was “extremely limited” and that any actions he took would have been on his own. The New York Times, however, reported that Papadopoulos helped set up a meeting between then-candidate Trump and an African leader and edited the outline of Trump’s first major foreign policy speech in April 2016.

Trump’s White House attorney, Ty Cobb, declined to comment on the New York Times report. “Out of respect for the special counsel and his process, we are not commenting on matters such as this,” he said in a statement.

Trump fired FBI director James Comey in May, citing Comey’s probe into possible links between the presidential campaign and Russian interference, as well as Comey’s alleged protection of Clinton.

Comey’s firing led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is carrying on the investigation, a wide-ranging probe that includes whether Trump’s campaign team colluded with Moscow, and whether there was possible obstruction of justice related to the firing of Comey.

Some Trump allies have recently accused Mueller’s team of being biased against the Republican president.

Agencies