Former Donald Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos heads to jail on Monday, after a judge rejected his effort to delay his sentence.
According to a Politico report, U.S. District Court Judge Randy Moss ruled that Trump’s one-time foreign policy advisor’s arguments against starting his jail time did not justify delaying justice. Papadopoulos received a two-week sentence for lying to FBI agents when they investigated possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Last year, Papadopoulos pled guilty and did not challenge the constitutionality of Mueller’s appointment, but he attempted to use another pending appeal that questions the special counsel’s assignment. His latest request came just one business day before he’s required to surrender himself and begin his sentence.
Papadopoulos “has failed to demonstrate that the D.C. Circuit is likely to conclude that the appointment of the Special Counsel was unlawful — and, indeed, he has failed even to show that the appeal raises a ‘close question’ that ‘very well could be decided’ against the Special Counsel,” Moss wrote in a 13 page decision.
The judge’s reason, in part, hinged on the fact that Chief Judge Beryl Howell and Judge Dabney Friedrich — of the Washington district court — already ruled against claims that Mueller’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Ex-Trump aide George Papadopoulos heads to jail. https://t.co/DsY1uNhBsU
— Bloomberg (@business) November 25, 2018
On Monday, two of Trump’s former campaign team will be serving time for their crimes. Papadopoulos joins Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Manafort is currently in prison, and he’s awaiting his full sentencing in February. Earlier this year, a jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts in his tax and fraud trial. Also, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States by attempting to obstruct justice to avoid another trial. During his pleas, he also admitted that Mueller’s other charges were also correct.
In all, Vox reported that so far, Mueller’s investigation netted 32 indictments or guilty pleas from people and three from companies, and there are still possible pending charges that the special counsel hasn’t revealed. Mueller also referred some cases to other jurisdictions based on his findings.
Those who face legal issues resulting from the case include four former advisors to Trump, 26 Russians, three Russian companies, a California man, and a lawyer based in London. Of these, all four of the president’s previous advisors pleaded guilty along with two others, for a total of six guilty pleas.
The investigation is not yet over, either. So far, the special counsel has not made any charges against the Trump campaign for colluding with Russia to impact the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
