Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Adviser Pleads Guilty In Russia Probe

POLITICS 10/30/2017 10:31 am ET Updated 11 minutes ago

Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Adviser Pleads Guilty In Russia Probe

George Papadopolos admitted lying to the FBI.

By Ryan J. Reilly

WASHINGTON ― A foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to FBI agents.

George Papadopoulos, 30, pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, but the case wasn’t unsealed until Monday, when two other Trump associates were indicted by a federal grand jury.

Papadopoulos reached a plea deal with prosecutors, and has since been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Prosecutors’ statement of the offense alleges Papadopoulos “made material false statements and material omissions” during a Jan. 27 interview with the FBI. He was arrested July 27. Prosecutors agreed to recommend between no prison time to six months under the plea agreement.

Papadopoulos told the FBI an overseas professor had “told him about the Russians possessing ‘dirt’ on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails,’ but stated multiple times that he learned that information prior to joining the campaign,” according to court documents. In fact, Papadopoulos was contacted after he learned he’d be joining the campaign, and the professor only mentioned the “thousands of emails” after he’d been on the Trump campaign for more than a month.

The professor, the statement indicates, had “substantial connections to Russian government officials” even though Papadopoulos claimed the professor was “a nothing.”

A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on Mar 31, 2016 at 7:09pm PDT

Papadopoulos, The Washington Post reported earlier, is a 2009 graduate of DePaul University. Previously, he was an adviser to Ben Carson’s presidential campaign and was the U.S. representative at the Geneva International Model United Nations in 2012. \\

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b07fdc5fbfa210

Paul Manafort, Rick Gates indicted by federal grand jury in Russia probe

Trump adviser claims he lied to FBI out of loyalty to Trump: Source

• By BRIAN ROSS
• RHONDA SCHWARTZ
• MATTHEW MOSK

Nov 10, 2017, 6:49 AM ET

AFP/Getty Imag

WATCH Trump adviser says he lied to FBI out of loyalty to Trump: Source

George Papadopoulos, the Trump foreign policy aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, initially misled agents out of what he claimed was loyalty to President Donald Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation.

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Trump had publicly denied that there had been any contact between his campaign and Russian officials, and Papadopoulos did not want to contradict the official line, the source said.

“It’s all fake news,” Trump said of any alleged connections in January. “It’s phony stuff. It didn’t happen.”

Papadopoulos met with the FBI agents investigating those alleged ties shortly thereafter, and he later acknowledged that he lied during that meeting about the timing of certain contacts.

According to federal court filings, Papadopoulos initially claimed his contacts with a professor who had deep ties in Russia “occurred before” he became an adviser to the campaign.

“In truth and in fact,” the filings read, “the professor only took interest in defendant Papadopoulos because of his status with the Campaign.”

There are also lingering questions about the role Papadopoulos played in the campaign.

After the plea agreement was made public last month, Trump sought to distance himself from Papadopoulos, tweeting that “few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.”

But the “low level volunteer” made several trips overseas throughout 2016, purportedly on behalf of the campaign, making appearances where he was introduced as a Trump adviser.

In April, he traveled to Israel to speak at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, an appearance arranged by the former Israeli ambassador to Greece. In May, he met in Athens with the president of Greece. In September, he met with officials at the British Foreign Office in London.

During inaugural festivities, Papadopoulos met with advocates for Israeli settlements, telling them “We are looking forward to ushering in a new relationship with all of Israel.”

In an interview with ABC News, Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, said he believes Papadopoulos’s campaign credentials changed only when it became clear he was a political liability.

“You’re a senior foreign policy adviser until you do something that exposes the campaign,” Swalwell said, adding that he would like to know who paid for Papadopoulos’s globetrotting.

“It is certainly of deep interest to know whether the Russians were paying for any of Papadopoulos’s travel through Europe during his time with campaign,” he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump...ry?id=51059088