Former Trump Foreign Policy Adviser George Papadopoulos secretly pleaded guilty on October 3 to making false statements to the FBI on January 27, according to an indictment unsealed today.
The documents reveal that the FBI had an open investigation underway in January.
A professor with close ties to the Russian government told an adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in April 2016 that Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” according to court documents unsealed Monday.
The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation. The plea represents the most explicit evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government’s meddling in last year’s election.
Mr. Papadopoulos repeatedly tried to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials, court records show.
Mr. Papadopoulos told the F.B.I. in January that the professor was “a nothing.” But Mr. Papadopoulos now acknowledges that he knew the professor had “substantial connections to Russian government officials.”
Here’s the indictment.
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Papadopoulos was one of several foreign policy advisors to Trump during his campaign.
Papadopoulos previously served as a policy and economic advisor to Ben Carson, who notably struggled with domestic and foreign policy issues during his failed presidential run.
Before that, the 30-year-old was a consultant at a London-based oil and gas company. He’s a director at the London Centre of International Law Practice. He graduated from DePaul University in 2009.
