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George Papadopoulos (born August 1987) is an American former campaign staffer who served in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents about contacts he had with the Russian government in 2016 relating to U.S.-Russia relations and Donald Trump's campaign.

Education and early career

Papadopoulos was born in August 1987 to family of Greek heritage. He graduated from Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, in 2005. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in political science from DePaul University in 2009.

Papadopoulos was an unpaid intern at the Hudson Institute in 2011 and later worked as a contact research assistant to a senior fellow at the institute.

In 2014, Papadopoulos authored op-ed pieces in Israeli publications. In one, published in the right-wing Arutz Sheva, Papadopoulos argued that the U.S. should focus on its "stalwart allies" Israel, Greece, and Cyprus to "contain the newly emergent Russian fleet"; in another, published in Ha'aretz, he contended that Israel should exploit its natural gas resources in partnership with Cyprus and Greece rather than Turkey.

Beginning in December 2015, he served on the National Security and Foreign Policy Advisory Committee for Ben Carson's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Involvement in Donald Trump's presidential campaign

Papadopoulos, not to be confused with Mr. Snuffleupagus or George Stephanopoulos, joined Donald Trump's presidential campaign in March 2016 as a foreign policy advisor. While working for Trump's campaign, Papadopoulos sent emails concerning Vladimir Putin to seven campaign officials. Trump national campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis encouraged Papadopoulos to fly to Russia to meet with agents of the Russian Foreign Ministry, after being told that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton it wanted to share with Trump's campaign.

He met on March 14th and 21st with a Russian connected professor about the "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." At that point,he was already working for the Trump campaign. At the March 21st meeting, the professor brought another Russian woman.

This occurred before there was public knowledge of the hack of Democratic National Committee and of John Podesta's emails, both of which U.S. intelligence agencies believe were carried out by Russia. Between March and September 2016, Papadopoulos made at least six requests for Trump to meet with Russian politicians. In May, Paul Manafort forwarded one such request to his colleague Rick Gates saying, "We need someone to communicate that Trump is not doing these trips. It should be someone low-level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." Gates delegated the task to the campaign’s correspondence coordinator referring to him as "the person responding to all mail of non-importance." In an interview about Russia–United States relations with Interfax in September 2016, Papadopoulos said that Barack Obama had failed to follow through on his promises to cooperate with Russia, and asserted that the U.S. had made insufficient joint efforts with Russia against terrorism.

Just after Trump became President in January 2017, Papadopoulos visited Israel and told settlers in the West Bank that Trump supported their settlements.

Senator Richard Burr, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, said in October 2017 that the panel was interested in Papadopoulos because he had sent e-mails attempting to set up meetings between Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Arrest and guilty plea

After being interviewed by FBI agents, Papadopoulos deactivated his Facebook account, which contained correspondences with Russians, and created a new one. Papadopoulos was arrested at Washington Dulles Airport on July 27, 2017, and he has since been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to making false statements to FBI agents relating to contacts he had with agents of the Russian government while working for the Trump campaign. Papadopoulos's arrest and guilty plea became public on October 30, 2017, when court documents showing the guilty plea were unsealed.

On the same day, two other Trump advisers—Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates—were arrested after being charged by the special counsel.

Personal life

Papadopolous has lived for the past several years with relatives in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago.

Notes

1. Papadopoulos has described himself as a "fellow" of the Hudson Institute for several years.

References

1. ^ Sweet, Lynn; Mihalopoulos, Dan; Seidel, Jon (October 30, 2017). "Chicagoan's path from Trump campaign to conviction to cooperation". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
2. Skiba, Katherine (October 30, 2017). "Former Trump campaign adviser, DePaul alum from Chicago pleads guilty to lying to FBI". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
3. ^ De Young, Karen (April 15, 2016). "GOP foreign policy elites don't know whether they'll serve if Trump is president". Washington Post. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
4. ^ Tibon, Amir; Sommer, Alison Kaplan (October 30, 2017). "Trump Campaign Adviser Who Pled Guilty to Lying to FBI Has Surprising Ties to Israeli Settlers". Haaretz. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
5. "Dr. Ben Carson Announces Foreign Policy Advisors" (Press release). The American Presidency Project. December 8, 2015. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
6. Ryan, Missy; Mufson, Steven (March 22, 2016). "One of Trump's foreign policy advisers is a 2009 college grad who lists Model UN as a credential". Washington Post. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
7. Rosalind S. Helderman, Who’s who in the George Papadopoulos court documents, Washington Post (October 30, 2017).
8. ^ Tom Winter and Tracy Connor (October 30, 2017). "Secret Guilty Plea of Ex-Trump Campaign Adviser George Papadopoulos Reveals Russian Ties". NBC News. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
9. ^ Apuzzo, Matt; Schmidt, Michael S. (October 30, 2017). "Trump Campaign Adviser Met With Russian to Discuss 'Dirt' on Clinton". New York Times.
10. CNN, Jeremy Herb and Marshall Cohen,. "Who is George Papadopoulos?". CNN. Retrieved October 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
11. Helderman, Rosalind S.; Hamburger, Tom (October 30, 2017). "Top campaign officials knew of Trump adviser's outreach to Russia". Washington Post. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
12. Hamburger, Tom; Leonnig, Carol D.; Helderman, Rosalind S. (August 14, 2017). "Trump campaign emails show aide's repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings". Washington Post. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
13. Brennan, Christopher (August 14, 2017). "Trump campaign adviser made repeated attempts to set up meeting with Russia: report". New York Daily News. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
14. Baygarova, Ksenia (September 30, 2016). "George Papadopoulos: Sanctions have done little more than to turn Russia towards China". Interfax. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
15. Kutner, Max (August 14, 2017). "Who is George Papadopoulos, the Trump Campaign Adviser Who Suggested a Meeting with Russian Leaders?". Newsweek. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
16. Silva, Christianna (October 20, 2017). "Russia Update: Senate investigators consider meeting with Trump campaign official, George Papadopoulos". Newsweek. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
17. Glaser, April (October 30, 2017). "The Trump Campaign Adviser Who Pleaded Guilty Was Very Bad at Facebook". Slate. Retrieved October 31, 2017. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
18. "Plea Offer and Defendant's Acceptance". United States v. George Papadopoulos. United States Department of Justice. October 5, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
19. "Statement of Facts of Guilt". United States v. George Papadopoulos. United States Department of Justice. October 5, 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
20. Joseph Tanfani, Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to the FBI agents in Mueller probe, Los Angeles Times (October 30, 2017).
21. Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt, & Matthew Rosenberg, Former Trump Aides Charged as Prosecutors Reveal New Campaign Ties With Russia, New York Times (October 30, 2017).

• Current events from October 2017
• 1987 births
• Living people
• American people of Greek descent
• DePaul University alumni
• Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• Alumni of the University of London
• People associated with the United States presidential election, 2016
• People convicted of making false statements