1/ The recently released, exculpatory Papadopoulos CHS transcripts, which don't suggest that Papa is a heavy drinker, made me revisit the origins of the idea that it was a "night of heavy drinking" that caused Papa to spill the Russia collusion beans to Alexander Downer.
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2/ The phrase "a night of heavy drinking" was first used by NYT in its now infamous Dec 30, 2017 story on the supposed origins of the Russia probe. 
3/ The snag is that Alexander Downer himself denies that there was any heavy drinking. On this, Papa and Downer agree. Both have consistently maintained that their meeting took place in the early evening of May 10, 2016, it lasted about an hour, and they both had just one drink.
4/ So who came up with the heavy drinking story and why? There are essentially 3 options. The NYT made it up, the story is part of the widespread FBI embellishment of Downer's tip (see clip of FBI's Baker below), or there was in fact some heavy drinking, just not with Downer.
5/ If it is option 3, then it would have to have been Papa's meeting with another Australian official, Erika Thompson, which took place on May 6, 2016. Not much is know about this meeting and Papa has, inexplicably, lied about it on numerous occasions.
6/ We do know from Greg Miller's book that Erika sent Papa an email saying that they had had "enormous fun" when they met on May 6 (for some reason, TDS sufferer Miller seems to have possession of Papa's email trove).
7/ There's another clue. Mueller says the FFG (friendly foreign government) info that started the Russia investigation pertains to a Papa meeting that took place on May 6. Recall that the Downer meeting was on May 10. (@Techno_Fog contacted SCO but they did not correct the date)
8/ So it might be that the Downer tip wasn't really the Downer tip at all. But the recent transcripts suggest that Papa does not get carried away drinking, even with close friends. So was it just FBI embellishment to insinuate that Papa spilled the beans due to "heavy drinking"?
9/ It's an important question because it is either evidence of more FBI malfeasance (including leaking the fake story to NYT in the first place) or evidence of Mueller obfuscation. Adding to the confusion, Horowitz is careful to use neither May 6 nor 10. He uses only "May 2016".
10/ Lastly, I think option 1, that the NYT made it up, is pretty unlikely because of the specificity of the claim, as well as the fact that NYT highlights it both in the headline and the first sentence. It's almost certain someone made the claim to the NYT and they parroted it.
11/ @ombudsman4truth points out Mueller got other dates wrong. On that note, Carter Page FISA also got FFG date wrong (below). If May 6 is a Mueller typo then who leaked the fake drinking story to NYT? Whoever it was, no doubt it was done to make Papa origin story more plausible.
