When George Papadopoulos said that he could set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump reportedly “nodded with approval.” The meeting took place on March 31, 2016, and top campaign official Jeff Sessions, who is now U.S. Attorney General, “appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it,” according to a sentencing memo submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by defense lawyers for Papadopoulos. Trump’s former “coffee boy” pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller
Trump said last year that he did not “remember much” about that meeting. “It was a very unimportant meeting, took place a long time [ago]. Don’t remember much about it,” Trump said last November, according to Politico .
The sentencing memo by Papadopolous’s lawyers also appears to contradict sworn testimony to congress by Sessions, during his confirmation hearings for the attorney general’s job. Sessions told congress that he knew of no contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. He later said that he simply forgot about the meeting in which Papadopoulos offered to set up the meeting with Putin, according to the New York Times .
Papadopoulos was told in April of 2016 by Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic with ties to the Kremlin, that Russia possessed “dirt” on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands” of hacked emails, as Inquisitr has reported. Mifsud gave Papadopoulos the information about the hacked emails three months before the Democratic emails hacked by Russia were released on the internet.
While Papadopoulos has never said whether he told members of the Trump campaign or Trump himself about the Clinton “dirt,” the sentencing memo says that he traveled to Greece in May of 2016, where he met with the Greek Foreign Minister. There, he reportedly revealed the existence of the Clinton “dirt” held by Russia to the Greek official.
The defense memo asks that a judge sentence Papadopoulos only to probation, with no jail time, even though it admits that his crimes in lying to FBI investigators were “serious.” The memo questions Russia investigation Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s claim that Papadopoulos harmed the investigation.
As Inquisitr reported, Mueller claimed in a court document in August that Papadopoulos’ lies to the FBI prevented investigators from detaining and questioning Mifsud during the academic’s visit to the United States in February of 2017, just a few weeks after the FBI interrogated Papadopoulos.
