Early on October 30, US President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates turned themselves in to federal authorities to face charges including money laundering to failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts to conspiracy against the United States.
Both Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty to charges including meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. And there are not charges that point to direct collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. However, Geroge Papadopoulos pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI on October 5. On April 2016, Papadopoulos received a mail from a professor who had Russian “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” This individual claimed to have close ties to the Russian government. Papadopoulos is said to be guilty of hiding this mail from the FBI.
Post this revelation, President Trump has come out and declared Papadopoulos to be merely a volunteer and a proven liar. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has repeatedly said that Papadopoulos' role in role with the campaign’s foreign policy team was 'extremely limited'.
Here's a closer look at who he really is. Papadopoulos, who graduated from college in 2009, went to work at a think tank for several years. Before joining Trump campaign, he worked for Ben Carson's presidential campaign.
Though the White House sought to minimize his role, in the past, unpaid advisors have had direct access to the candidate and to other senior staff members. Papadopoulos, infact, had a seat at the table with President Trump and he consistently represented himself as a member of the Trump campaign. Previous advisors have also been part of small groups charged with crafting major policy announcements, speeches, and debate points. Papadopoulos has allegedly met this professor who sent him the mail about Clinton.
The reason he is considered a low leve payer was because he was in his 20s and had very litlle experience as campaign advisor when he joined the Trump campaign. So, when the White House is trying to belittle his role, the could work considering Papadopoulos also joined the campaign late according to soruces.
As for the Russia investigation, Mueller's team would definitely be looking into who Papadopoulos spoke to and what his Russian sources revealed to him. Looking at the larger picture, Papadopoulos' plea could be linked to obstruction of other justice allegation.
