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George Papadopoulos, former foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump who was coached in the special council's investigation, claims that members of the Trump campaign team were "fully aware" and often supported his efforts to organize a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I have actively sought to leverage my contacts with the professor to host this meeting," Papadopoulos told ABC News Channel chief George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on "This Week" on Sunday.
Papadopoulos's comments were his first in public since he was sentenced Friday to 14 days incarceration, one year of probation, 200 hours of community service and a $ 9,500 fine. He pleaded guilty in October to making false statements to FBI agents about his interactions with a Russian national and a Maltese professor suspected of being an agent of the Russian government.
Stephanopoulos questioned Mr. Papadopoulos about his meeting with the FBI in January 2017, when the former campaign assistant said he hoped he would get a job in the United States. Trump administration.
"It was in this context on January 27, 2017 when you met the FBI and you lied to them about your meetings with [Maltese professor] Joseph Mifsud, "said Stephanopoulos. Why did you lie to them? "
"I found myself stuck between the Justice Department and the President-in-Office and I have in-depth questions that I believe could incriminate the President-in-Office," Papadopoulos said.
"You were trying to protect the president?" Stephanopoulos in a hurry.
"Of course," replied Papadopoulos.
PHOTO: Trump's former campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos, leaves the US District Court after the sentencing hearing in Washington on September 7, 2018. (Yuri Gripas / Reuters)
Papdopoulos added: "I did not really understand the nature of what was going on .. Of course I am full of remorse, I am contrite and I have lied … You know, that's what it's all about. was probably in my mind, what exactly do I do here when talking about Russian piracy or electoral interference with the candidate I just worked for? "
Stephanopoulos also asked if Papadopoulos thought that "when all of Mueller's investigation is over, they will demonstrate that there has been collusion between the Trump campaign, between Trump councilors and the Russians?
Papadopoulos, who had four sessions with Mueller's team, said, "I have no idea. All I can say is that my testimony could have helped to get things done, but I have no idea.
He said that during the campaign he had initiated the idea of a summit between Trump and Putin at the time, at a meeting of the security team of the campaign, March 31, 2016.
(PLUS: Papadopoulos sentenced to 14 days in Russia)
Among those who seemed to like the concept, he said, was then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, who he said was excited about the Trump-Putin summit, contrary to what Sessions said later in Congress.
Papadopoulos said Trump was "open to this idea, and he, of course, referred to former Senator Jeff Sessions, whom I remember being quite enthusiastic about.
Stephanopoulos noted that Sessions subsequently gave Congress a seemingly different account, saying he had closed the idea of a Trump-Putin summit at this campaign meeting. "I pushed back," Sessions told Congress.
The Attorney General says he's backed away, Stephanopoulos told Papadopoulos. "Is he telling the truth?" Papadopoulos said, "All I can say is that it was a meeting about two years ago, my memories differ from those of Jeff Sessions.
He also said that Trump's advisers had reacted in a mixed way to the summit's idea at the March 2016 meeting, but that many of them were aware of his efforts, including Corey Lewandowski, director. campaign at the time, and Trump himself.
Papadopoulos was Trump's first campaign advisor arrested as part of special advisor Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference and possible collusion during the 2016 campaign.
While Papadopoulos still has to surrender and serve his two-week prison sentence, he says he's already looking beyond that sentence, after a brief and tumultuous incursion into electoral politics.
PHOTO: President Donald Trump meets with Attorney General Jeff Session on December 15, 2017 in Quantico, Virginia, before attending the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images)
The 31-year-old energy specialist was a political novice in early 2016 when he joined Donald Trump as an unpaid foreign policy advisor. His lawyer, Thomas Breen, told the court on Friday that he was "not very sophisticated, naïve and a fool."
He said he was swept away by the campaign, finding himself "very young, with big players". He developed "unbridled loyalty to Trump," said Breen.
The court records show that he was contacted for the first time in Italy by a professor who, according to the FBI, was working on behalf of the Russians. This led to contacts between Papadopoulos and the Russian Foreign Ministry. In April 2016, the professor told him that the Russians had thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton, according to court records.
Papadopoulos would be the first Trump campaign advisor to be notified of Clinton-related hacked emails – information shared in April 2016, well before the release of any stolen material.
Photo: George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign assistant, arrives with his wife Simona Mangiante to the United States District Court for his sentencing hearing on September 7, 2018 in Washington, DC (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
"The initial date of this contact is important: even the Clinton campaign did not yet know that Russia possessed stolen emails," the Democracy Intelligence Committee wrote in a progress report.
(PLUS: The lawyers of Trump's former campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos, claim that Trump "acquiesced with approval" at Putin's meeting)
Papadopoulos said in court in January 2017 that FBI agents had knocked on the door of his Chicago home while he was taking a shower and asked him to come to their offices for an interview. It is in this interview that he now says that he tried to "create a separation" between him and the professor and his Russian contacts. His fear – he would be drawn into a brewing scandal about Russian contacts and would miss a job in the Trump administration.
Speaking for the special council office, Andrew Goldstein said at Friday's hearing that Papadopoulos "had chosen to lie again and again to promote his personal interests". His lies were "deliberate, calculated and detrimental to the investigation," he said.
PHOTO: FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies before a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC, on June 19, 2013. (Tom Williams / CQ roll call via Getty Images, FILE)
He did "his best efforts to cooperate," said the prosecutor.
Papadopoulos admitted to having made "a terrible mistake".
US District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss called the youth, the former campaign aide, a "serious offense". According to Moss, Mr. Papadopoulos lied to "place his personal ambitions above the interests of the United States"
"These are not good reasons to lie," said the judge. "It was not a noble lie."
At the same time, he said he acknowledged that Papadopoulos had "genuine remorse" for "being caught".
After ordering him to spend two weeks in prison, Moss concluded by saying, "The mere fact of having to go to jail will leave him with a strong impression for the rest of his life."
After the judge had pronounced the sentence, Papadopoulos moved away from the defense table and made a long hug with his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos. A lawyer by training, she became her public spokesperson during the long months between her arrest and her conviction.
While Papadopoulos plans to move to California to start his new life by supporting his wife's acting career, he may not be quite finished with the investigations that took him to prison.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the high-ranking Democrat of the Intelligence Committee who is conducting his own investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, said Friday that he thought Papadopoulos could be called to testify.
"As an influential advisor to the Trump campaign's foreign policy, Papadopoulos was informed that Russia had" messed up "Hillary Clinton in the form of" thousands of emails "at a critical moment in the campaign," he said. Warner. "I still have important questions about the quality of this information, and I know that the Senate Intelligence Committee would like to hear Mr. Papadopoulos directly."
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