Who knew what, when?
While we wait to see if Paul Manafort will flip, it appears one person on Team Trump already has.
George Papadopoulos, former foreign policy adviser to the Donald Trump presidential campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russian officials. From the guilty plea:
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You can read the full plea below. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty on October 5th, and the plea was unsealed today.
This plea is potentially bigger than the Manafort indictment. First of all, the Papadopoulos plea speaks directly to actions that took place during the campaign, while the Manafort indictment contemplates action that took place a long time ago.
Trump supporters and defenders will, rightly, point out that the plea has nothing to do with Donald Trump. Papadopoulos admits to meeting with a Russian contact who claimed to have “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. He does not plea to taking that meeting at the behest of Donald Trump, nor does he admit to receiving or using any information he obtained. Really, all Papadopoulos admits to is lying to the FBI about the meeting.
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But… why was he lying? Why is this random Trump associate lying to the FBI about this kind of stuff? The “black hole theory” of the Trump/Russia connection is that it becomes hard to explain the actions of these Trump associates without there being a vast conspiracy at the center of this mess. You can’t see the black hole, but you know it’s there because of how everything reacts around it.
Most likely, Papadopoulos only got a plea deal because he was willing to give Mueller additional information that they are looking for. Papadopoulos, most likely, has been telling the FBI everything that he knows. We don’t know if he knows anything, but you don’t normally get this kind of plea without giving the prosecutors something that they want.
Trump, and his spokespeople, and his sycophants, are going to spend the day crowing about how none of the news today implicates the president. If that’s your only takeaway, you’ve maybe missed the point.
[pdfjs-viewer url=”https://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/10/George-Papadopoulos-guilty-plea.pdf”]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.