How did two Intel assets know there were stolen e mails?

US Intel “assests” Stefan Halper and Joseph Mifsud to con small fish Papadopoulos

Papadopoulos claimed, in meeting Downer,  the two Hillary agents  mentioned stolen  e mails.  This was before Assange revealed he had them. By the Downer meeting, the word started to leak.

So, it sounds to me like Hillary started her set up before she even knew about the e mails, they were not mentioned by Halper and Mifsud, in their earlier meeting.  Papadopoulos must have back concluded, or embellished.  Or else, Downer suggested it and Papa must have confirmed.

Clearly the Hillary set up preceded any 'known' knowledge of e mail theft.  More likely, Putin was neutral, at first.  But on getting wind that Hillary was setting him up, he gave Assange the e mails in revenge.

 Look at the whole time line. When did Hillary start pissing Putin off. She started early, connecting Trump to hotel deals. She knew about the failing Moscow hotel deal, she pushed the buttons she had at FBI. That started the whole ball rolling as it involved Putin. Putin response would be to give up the goods to Assange, wash his hands of it. Now everything blows up in Hillary's face, she creates the crime, Trump entirely oblivious trying to get a hotel deal.

A comedy of errors, as Trump is afraid if being busted on the hotels deals in some sideline outcome.  His best protection is to make hotels a foreign policy.  Putin would have preferred to keep the e mails, and let Hillary win, at the time. Then he has blackmail. But he ended up better off, forced into a defacto alliance with Trump because Hillary blundered so horribly.

Halper and Mifsud would not have known about e mails in their earlier meeting with Papa. Putin would never have revealed his goodies, it seemed implausible at the time.  By the time of the Downer meeting, the FBI knew the plot as blowing up, Putin turned the tables.  The irony was that at that point everyone was a party to the conspiracy except Trump. Trump was on to the hotel conspiracy.

The Russian lawyer babe was all about hotels, and sanctions on oligarchs  By then Putin is all over the e mail case, and his guy at the meeting is mainly interested in keeping e mails out of the meeting, Putin has no interest in revealing his link to Assange.