Don rips plea-deal aide
President Trump on Tuesday slammed his former foreign-policy aide who took a plea deal in the Russia investigation as a “low-level volunteer” and “a liar.”
“The Fake News is working overtime,” the president fumed in a tweet a day after his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort aide Rick Gates were indicted and the plea deal George Papadopoulos took was revealed.
“As Paul Manaforts [sic] lawyer said, there was ‘ no collusion’ and events mentioned took place long before he came to the campaign,” Trump tweeted. “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!”
California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, responded, tongue in cheek: “With respect, Mr. President, not sure we can rely on Mr. Manafort’s lawyer to tell us whether there was collusion, as unbiased as he may be.”
The president was joined in his attacks by former top campaign staffer Corey Lewandowski and ex-communications adviser Michael Caputo, both in full damage-control mode.
Lewandowski on NBC’s “Today” show said Papadopoulos — whom Trump once called “an excellent guy” at a national-security meeting — was a “lowlevel volunteer” who was “never a person who was interacting with the senior management on a regular basis.”
Caputo told CNN he didn’t know Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians believed to be linked to the Kremlin, branding him as a low-level “coffee boy.”