George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser for U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s successful presidential campaign, pleaded guilty to perjury in early October after apparently lying to FBI agents over his ties to people associated with the Russian government.
A plea agreement released by the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Oct. 30 shows that Papadopoulos lied to federal investigators in January 2017 over whether he had contacted people linked to the Russian government during the campaign.
In particular, emails apparently obtained by U.S. federal prosecutors show that Papadopoulos corresponded with a Moscow-based employee of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a London-based Russian professor with “substantial connections to high-level Russian government officials,” and an unnamed Russian woman who falsely claimed to be related to Vladimir Putin.
One email between the unnamed Russian woman and Papadopoulos reads as follows:
“As mentioned, we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced.”
The indictment specifies that Papadopoulos only lied about his contacts with the professor.
‘Dirt’
The plea agreement details interactions between Papadopoulos and the London-based professor, who is not named in the filing.
Papadopoulos, 30, was one of five foreign policy advisors on the Trump campaign when his contacts with the professor started in March 2016.
The two met while Papadopoulos was traveling in Italy.
“Papadopoulos was interested in the professor because, among other reasons, the professor claimed to have substantial connections with Russian government officials, which” Papadopoulos apparently saw as an opportunity to increase his importance to the Trump campaign.
From there, the two met in London, when the “female Russian national” was falsely introduced to Papadopoulos as the niece of Vladimir Putin.
Papadopoulos then, one week later, flaunted his connections with the Russians at a “national security meeting” in Washington D.C. with President Trump as part of his campaign.
“When defendant Papadopoulos introduced himself to the group,” the plea agreement reads, “he stated, in sum and substance, that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin.”
The agreement does not describe the reaction to that offer.
But from then on, interactions between Papadopoulos and his Russian contacts apparently intensified.
In late April 2016, the professor told Papadopoulos that the Russian government had obtained “dirt” on opposing presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and that the Russians had “thousands of emails” from the former secretary of state.
The plea agreement does not specify whether these emails were the same emails released by Wikileaks in October 2016, or whether Papadopoulos communicated this information to the campaign.
The agreement does go into detail about Papadopoulos’s continued communications with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs official. At one point, the unnamed official offers a “high level meeting of Mr. Trump with the Russian Federation” as well as “a meeting for you at the North America Desk, if you are in Moscow.”
Over summer 2016, Papadopoulos proposes a meeting between Trump and Putin. The last mention of the meeting, which never took place, occurs on Aug. 15, 2016, four days before former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort resigned from the campaign.
“After several weeks of further communications regarding a potential ‘off the record’ meeting with Russian officials, on or about Aug. 15, 2016, the Campaign Supervisor told defendant Papadopoulos that ‘I would encourage you’ and another foreign policy advisor to the Campaign to ‘make the trip, if it is feasible,’” the plea agreement reads.
Papadopoulos was interviewed by FBI agents in January 2017 over the links. He was arrested at Dulles airport outside Washington D.C. in July 2017.
