Ex-Trump adviser loses bid to delay prison sentence
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Sunday rejected a lastminute bid by former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to delay his two-week prison term and ordered him to surrender Monday as scheduled.
Papadopoulos sought the delay until an appeals court had ruled in a separate case challenging the constitutionality of special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment.
But in an order Sunday, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss said Papadopoulos had waited too long to contest his sentence after it was handed down in September. Moss noted that Papadopoulos had agreed not to appeal in most circumstances as part of his plea agreement and the judge said the challenge to Mueller’s appointment was unlikely to be successful in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Four different federal judges have upheld Mueller’s appointment as proper.
“The prospect that the D.C. Circuit will reach a contrary conclusion is remote,” Moss wrote.
Tweeting in response Sunday, Papadopoulos said he looked forward to telling the full story behind his case. In recent months, he has spent many nights posting on Twitter, as has his wife, venting anger about the FBI and insisting he was framed by the government. He has also offered to testify before the Senate’s intelligence committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, if he’s granted immunity or other conditions.