WASHINGTON: The international policy marketing consultant to President Donald Trump's election marketing campaign whose contacts with Russians spark off the investigation into imaginable collusion with Moscow is to be sentenced on Friday.
After cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia explore for greater than a 12 months, George Papadopoulos faces up to six months in jail for one count of lying to investigators.
He has testified that senior members of the Trump marketing campaign encouraged him all the way through 2016 to build ties with Russia, together with after he instructed them that Moscow possessed -- and might be willing to proportion -- dirt on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton.
Those problems at the moment are at the center of Mueller's sprawling investigation, which an increasing number of threatens Trump's internal circle and the president himself.
Out of the 35 other folks and entities up to now charged, Papadopoulos is one in every of five who've pleaded to blame and will be the 2d to be sentenced.
Prosecutors have recommended he be jailed for up to six months for one count of constructing false statements to investigators.
Papadopoulos has asked to be sentenced to probation -- and feature that straight away terminated, arguing that the past 13 months he has spent cooperating with the investigation is "the equivalent of one year of probation."
The 31-year-old Chicago native was a little-experienced petroleum analyst primarily based in London when he joined the Trump marketing campaign in March 2016 as one in every of a handful of members of the long run president's nationwide security and international policy advisory board.
Within weeks, he made touch with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who touted links to the Kremlin and introduced him to others who ostensibly had connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- together with a girl who claimed to be Putin's niece.
At the end of March 2016, Papadopoulos instructed Trump, then-senator and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and members of the nationwide security staff at their first meeting in Washington that he had connections in London that would arrange a Trump-Putin meeting ahead of the November election.
"While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," Papadopoulos claimed in a pre-sentencing statement last week. Sessions has claimed he adversarial the theory.
In subsequent marketing campaign communications, Papadopoulos was encouraged to pursue a Putin-Trump meeting. In late April he instructed them that Mifsud mentioned the Russians had knowledge that would harm Clinton, in the form of hundreds of emails.
Weeks later, stolen Clinton emails had been leaked over the web by way of what US intelligence chiefs now say had been Russian intelligence actors. Papadopoulos says he had not anything to do with the leak.
US investigators had been simplest alerted to Papadopoulos' activities in mid-2016 after he instructed Australia's ambassador to London, Alexander Downer, about his talks with Mifsud all the way through a late-night drinking session in a London pub.
After the Clinton emails had been leaked, the Australians instructed US intelligence counterparts what Downer had heard, spurring the FBI to begin investigating imaginable collusion between the Trump marketing campaign and Moscow.
In his pre-sentencing statement, Papadopoulos admitted lying to FBI investigators in January 2017 but mentioned it have been out of a need to protect his profession and a naive loyalty to the Trump administration. The lies did not impede the investigation, he argued.
"Caught off-guard by an impromptu interrogation, Mr Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master," the statement mentioned.
After cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia explore for greater than a 12 months, George Papadopoulos faces up to six months in jail for one count of lying to investigators.
He has testified that senior members of the Trump marketing campaign encouraged him all the way through 2016 to build ties with Russia, together with after he instructed them that Moscow possessed -- and might be willing to proportion -- dirt on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton.
Those problems at the moment are at the center of Mueller's sprawling investigation, which an increasing number of threatens Trump's internal circle and the president himself.
Out of the 35 other folks and entities up to now charged, Papadopoulos is one in every of five who've pleaded to blame and will be the 2d to be sentenced.
Prosecutors have recommended he be jailed for up to six months for one count of constructing false statements to investigators.
Papadopoulos has asked to be sentenced to probation -- and feature that straight away terminated, arguing that the past 13 months he has spent cooperating with the investigation is "the equivalent of one year of probation."
The 31-year-old Chicago native was a little-experienced petroleum analyst primarily based in London when he joined the Trump marketing campaign in March 2016 as one in every of a handful of members of the long run president's nationwide security and international policy advisory board.
Within weeks, he made touch with a mysterious professor, Joseph Mifsud, who touted links to the Kremlin and introduced him to others who ostensibly had connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- together with a girl who claimed to be Putin's niece.
At the end of March 2016, Papadopoulos instructed Trump, then-senator and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and members of the nationwide security staff at their first meeting in Washington that he had connections in London that would arrange a Trump-Putin meeting ahead of the November election.
"While some in the room rebuffed George's offer, Mr Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr Sessions, who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it," Papadopoulos claimed in a pre-sentencing statement last week. Sessions has claimed he adversarial the theory.
In subsequent marketing campaign communications, Papadopoulos was encouraged to pursue a Putin-Trump meeting. In late April he instructed them that Mifsud mentioned the Russians had knowledge that would harm Clinton, in the form of hundreds of emails.
Weeks later, stolen Clinton emails had been leaked over the web by way of what US intelligence chiefs now say had been Russian intelligence actors. Papadopoulos says he had not anything to do with the leak.
US investigators had been simplest alerted to Papadopoulos' activities in mid-2016 after he instructed Australia's ambassador to London, Alexander Downer, about his talks with Mifsud all the way through a late-night drinking session in a London pub.
After the Clinton emails had been leaked, the Australians instructed US intelligence counterparts what Downer had heard, spurring the FBI to begin investigating imaginable collusion between the Trump marketing campaign and Moscow.
In his pre-sentencing statement, Papadopoulos admitted lying to FBI investigators in January 2017 but mentioned it have been out of a need to protect his profession and a naive loyalty to the Trump administration. The lies did not impede the investigation, he argued.
"Caught off-guard by an impromptu interrogation, Mr Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master," the statement mentioned.
Trump aide whose Russia ties sparked probe to be sentenced
![Trump aide whose Russia ties sparked probe to be sentenced]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
September 08, 2018
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