Trump-Russia inquiry: three key aides indicted, including Papadopoulos

Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and advisor Rick Gates were indicted for conspiracy and money-laundering and now another advisor, George Papadopoulos is added into the mix, who has emerged as the first person to 'agree to cooperate with the Mueller probe'

George Papadopoulos (Photo: Slate)
George Papadopoulos (Photo: Slate)

The White House has denied allegations regarding collusion with Russia, for months.

However, in court documents released on Monday, new evidence has emerged of a plot, by former Trump foreign policy aide, to arrange a meeting with Vladimir Putin, on behalf of Donald Trump.

The plan featured a London professor, a female Russian national, inaccurately referred to as “Putin’s niece” and promises that the Kremlin was ready to dispense “dirt” on Hilary Clinton.

The most explicit evidence yet of a campaign official’s attempts to work with the Kremlin, emerged in an indictment brought by Robert Mueller, the special counsel who has headed the investigation into Trump-Russia contacts since May.

It came about on the same day that Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and advisor Rick Gates were indicted for conspiracy and money-laundering, amongst other charges, and gave themselves up to the FBI.

Until now, George Papadopoulos, a Greek-American, who served as foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign and also lived in London for a period of time, has played only a small role in the scandal.

On Monday, however, he emerged as the first person to agree to cooperate with the Mueller probe, under the terms of a plea agreement. He also admitted to lying to investigators.

The “statement of offence”, which is 14 pages long, was released on Monday and sets out how in 2016, Papadopoulos sought to forge ties to Kremin officials, misled the FBI and then tried to cover it all up.

According to the indictment, the FBI questioned him on 27 January 2017, just a week following Trump’s inauguration. According to the FBI, Papadopoulos “made material false statements and material omissions”.

In particular, he tried to dupe federal agents about the extensive nature of his contacts with Kremlin officials, and when he first learned that the Russians hacked Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Papadopoulus joined Trump’s campaign early in March 2016. Days later he spoke to an unnamed Trump “supervisor” who spelled out the campaign’s principal foreign policy objective: “an improved US relationship with Russia”.

Just a week later, he flew to Rome, where he met with a London-based “professor of diplomacy” from a “Mediterranean country”.

The professor, who was identified as Joseph Mifsud, claimed to have “substantial connections with Russian government officials”.

Mifsud is reportedly based at the London Academy of Diplomacy and a Maltese former foreign office diplomat, according to reports. He said he was not connected to the Russian government, when interviewed by the Washington Post in August.

According to the FBI, the professor was initially “uninterested” in developing ties, until Papadopoulos revealed his Trump connection.

There was a follow-up meeting on 24 March in London. The professor brought a “Russian female national” along with him, who Papadopoulos described in an email afterwards as “Putin’s niece”. However, Putin does not have any surviving siblings.

Papadopoulos told the FBI that his exchanges with this woman were innocuous, and amounted to little more than “Hi, how are you?”

He is then reported to have emailed the Trump campaign supervisor to say that he was working on setting up a high-level meeting between “us” and the “Russian leadership”.

The “campaign supervisor” replied: “Great work.”

On 31 March, a meeting was held in Washington between Trump, Papadopoulos, and Trump’s national security team. Papadopoulos was pictured three seats away from Trump. According to the FBI, Papadopoulos told those seated that he could broker a ground-breaking meeting between Putin and Trump.

Papadopoulos worked in London to make this happen as he sent emails to the Russian woman as well as to the professor, who informed him that he would be travelling imminently to Moscow.

On 18 April, Mifsud emailed from Moscow, introducing Papadopoulos to an influential “individual”, with links to Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs.

The individual was identified as Ivan Timofeev, a Russian official, who works for the Russian International Affairs Council.

He also leads a programme at the Valdai discussion club, a government organisation, which invites western academics for an annual audience with Putin.

On his return to the UK, the professor brought news. In late April, over breakfast in a “London hotel”, he told Papadopoulos that Russia had “dirt” on Clinton:

“They [the Russians] have dirt on her ... they have thousands of emails.”

After this bombshell Papadopoulos “continued to communicate” with the Trump campaign and his Russian government interlocutors.

According to the FBI, Papadopoulos told Trump’s “senior policy adviser” he had received “some interesting messages coming in from Moscow” and passed on that Russia was interested “in hosting Mr Trump”. He thanked the professor for his “critical help” in setting up a possible meeting. And added: “It’s history-making if it happens.”

Few of these details were released, until Mueller’s indictment was unsealed on Monday.

In January 2017, agents interviewed Papadopoulos in Chicago, after warning him that lying would be a “federal offence”. He was interviewed again a month later, which led to Papadopoulos deleting his Facebook account and changing his contact number, to bury exchanges with the professor and foreign affairs-connected individual.

The Mueller investigation is still ongoing.