Trump’s reaction: President tries to diminish the significance of aide who pleaded guilty.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday tried to diminish the significance of a former foreign policy adviser who admitted to lying to the FBI about how, during last year’s presidential campaign, he sought to meet with Russians offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton based on purloined emails.
In his first comment on this aspect of the case being developed by the special counsel investigation, Trump did not deny that the foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, worked to collaborate with Russia. He simply brushed off his significance and focused on the fact that Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI to cover up the contacts with Russia.
“Few people knew the young, low-level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
As for the indictment of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, the president repeated that the crimes alleged took place outside the context of the election contest.
“The Fake News is working overtime,” he wrote. “As Paul Manafort’s lawyer said, there was ‘no collusion’ and events mentioned took place long before he came to the campaign.”
As he has repeatedly in recent days, Trump sought to turn attention to Democrats, pointing to the resignation of Tony Podesta, the powerhouse Democratic lobbyist who also faces scrutiny by Mueller and whose brother, John Podesta, was Clinton’s campaign chairman.
Papadopoulos was named by Trump in March 2016 as one of five foreign policy advisers. Though the president and his team now seek to minimize Papadopoulos’ importance, at the time Trump described him in flattering terms. “He’s an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy,” he told The Washington Post.
According to a statement of offense signed as part of his guilty plea, Papadopoulos admitted that he spent months last year cultivating contacts in an effort to arrange meetings between Trump’s campaign and Russian government officials.
Papadopoulos kept senior campaign officials informed about his efforts and they encouraged him but made clear they wanted to keep some distance publicly.
“It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal,” a top campaign official wrote in an email at the time.