He Pleaded Guilty to Lying to the FBI, But Who is George Papadopoulos?

Earlier, it was made public that George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser, was charged by the Mueller investigation with giving false statements to the FBI. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to those charges. But who is this guy?

Isn’t that Webster’s Dad?

— Pelvis (@TomPellvis) October 30, 2017

No, it’s not.

It’s not this guy either.

For the nth time, I am NOT Trump’s foreign policy adviser! I have NO association with the Trump camp! NONE!

— George Papadopoulos (@feeonlyplanner) October 30, 2017

The George Papadopoulos in question is a thirty-something political adviser who worked for Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign prior to jumping on the Trump Train after Carson bowed out. He is also formerly a researcher at the conservative Hudson Institute focusing on energy issues. Newsweek published a profile on him back in August.

When he was part of the Trump campaign, Papadopoulos received attention for his youth. At the time, the Post’s Jia Lynn Yang pointed out his listing Model United Nations as a credential on LinkedIn. (Newsweek attempted to reach out to Papadopoulos through this account, but he was not immediately available for comment). According to the LinkedIn account that appears to belong to Papadopoulos, he graduated from DePaul University in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government. He then received master’s degrees from University College London and the London Schol of Economics. After graduating, he worked from 2011 to 2015 as a research associate at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

Trump introduced him as a member of his team of foreign policy advisers as “an excellent guy.” Papadopoulos apparently uses that as an endorsement on his LinkedIn page.

George Papadopoulos, former Trump aide now charged with giving false statements to FBI agents, uses a Trump quote praising him on LinkedIn pic.twitter.com/TTtAJ3Tq5b

— Aidan Kerr (@AidanKerrTweets) October 30, 2017

The Daily Caller reported that George Papadopoulos attempted to set up meetings between Trump and members of the Russian g0vernment including Vladimir Putin. His proposals were apparently shot down by the campaign.

But one of the more intriguing revelations about Papadopoulos, an oil and gas consultant, is that he was reportedly in touch with the head of a U.S.-Russia trade group who is an alleged source for the anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

Papadopoulos was announced by Trump himself as a member of the campaign’s foreign policy advisory shop on March 21, 2016. Just three days later, Papadopoulos would pitch Trump campaign officials on a bold proposal.

As The Washington Post reported earlier this week, Papadopoulos emailed campaign policy director Sam Clovis with a proposal to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump.”

Clovis rebuffed the advance, which included an offer for Trump to meet with Vladimir Putin.

Subsequent coverage by The Daily Caller indicates that Papadopoulos’ attempts at setting up meetings with Russia were quashed by now Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The campaign didn’t exactly seem as eager to collude with Russia as Democrats would have you believe.

The Trump campaign adviser who was revealed this week to have made numerous email requests seeking meetings between campaign and Russian government officials broached a similar idea in a March 31, 2016, meeting between Trump and his newly-formed foreign policy advisory team, The Daily Caller is told.

Two attendees at the meeting say that George Papadopoulos, a 30-something-year-old energy consultant, offered up the idea. But as with a half-dozen email inquires Papadopoulos sent to campaign officials pressing the same issue, the idea was rebuffed.

One attendee told TheDC that, as they recalled, then-Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the chairman of the campaign’s national security advisory council, quashed Papadopoulos’ suggestion. A second attendee confirmed that it was Sessions who shut down Papadopoulos, a former researcher at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank.

Trump probably had no idea who he even was. When Trump uses words like “great” or “excellent” to describe someone or something, it often means he has no idea who or what he’s talking about. My gut reaction to all this is that Papadopoulos was probably just overly eager to establish himself in the corridors of power by flaunting his international connections.

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