George Papadopoulos (third from left)
Politics.
That all important topic that you avoid at the dinner table and large family gatherings. Politicians are liked about as much as lawyers and spend most of their terms campaigning for re-election. No one really likes politics and recently they’ve been more ridiculous and inflammatory than usual. There’s been a lot going on and all of it impacts our lives in some way. Sometimes it seems like ignoring it all is the only way to stay sane.
One thing we have to pay attention to, however, is what is going on with the FBI’s investigation of the 2016 election. As a general rule, foreign governments influencing our elections is not something we really want. Which is one of the many things that made the 2016 election so… interesting. Wikileaks published data it stole from the DNC that affected Secretary Clinton’s campaign, the CIA believes that it was orchestrated by Russia.
The probe, currently led by Robert Mueller, is looking into the financial dealings and foreign contact relating to the election—most notably any coordination with Russia. In early October, he made his first arrest: George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign. Papadopoulos then proceeded to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about “the timing, extent, and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials.”
In the released documents, Papadopoulos admits to pursuing a relationship with Russian agents in order to get “dirt” on Sec. Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails” and as time progressed, he arranged meetings between the Trump campaign, and eventually the then-presidential candidate himself, and Russia. He had previously said that he had been contacted by the Russians before being invited into the campaign, which he has admitted is false. He was contacted after joining. He also attempted to minimize the importance of “the Professor,” the Russian he was in contact with, who Papadopoulos knew to “have substantial connections to high-level Russian government officials and that the Professor spoke with some of those officials in Moscow.”
Regardless of attempts to persuade the public of Papadopoulos’ lack of importance, the truth is that a significant member of Trump’s campaign actively worked with a foreign government to impact the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. In spite of what may or may not come of the investigation, it’s certainly something to consider and to keep a close eye on.
Document 19; Statement of the Offense