THE FORMER TRUMP ADVISER WHO LIED TO THE FBI MAY HAVE AGREED TO WEAR A WIRE FOR LESSER SENTENCE. THE PRESIDENT SAID PAPADOPOULOS WAS A LOW-LEVEL VOLUNTEER ON THE CAMPAIGN AND A ‘PROVEN LIAR.’
‘Everyone is freaking out,’ hiring lawyers
WASHINGTON • A former Donald Trump adviser may have worn a wire to discuss Russia with campaign colleagues as part of a deal to reduce his sentence, it has emerged.
George Papadopoulos, who admitted giving misleading statements about his Russian contacts, was called a “proactive co-operator” by investigators, according to court documents.
Legal experts said that the phrase sometimes equated to “wore a wire,” which would mean investigators could listen in to any calls or conversations he agreed to make.
Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor, said that after Papadopoulos’s arrest in July, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller may have used him to make recordings that could result in charges against others.
“Anyone who’s had a conversation with that guy since July until last night should be thinking about what they said to him,” Cramer told The Washington Post.
Trump and his allies attempted to distance themselves Tuesday from the former adviser by suggesting he only held a junior post and acted on his own.
The U.S. president tweeted: “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.”
Michael Caputo, another former Trump campaign adviser, said Papadopoulos had just been a “coffee boy.”
“If he was going to wear a wire, all we would have known now is whether he prefers a caramel macchiato over a regular American coffee in conversations with his barista,” he joked. However, numerous U.S. media reports revealed a White House left reeling by the charges brought on Monday and uncertain about where the investigation would end.
“The walls are closing in — everyone is freaking out,” one unnamed Republican figure told the Washington Post, while some White House aides have hired lawyers.
Papadopoulos is one of three Trump campaign figures charged as a result of an investigation by Mueller, who is looking into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The others are Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and his colleague Robert Gates. Both face a dozen charges including money laundering and lobbying for a Ukrainian political party, to which they have pleaded not guilty.
Papadopoulos, one of five foreign policy advisers named by the Trump campaign last spring, pleaded guilty to misleading the FBI about his contacts with Russian-linked figures.