George Papadopoulos, the young foreign policy aide whose drunken boast that the Russian government had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton kicked off the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, will serve two weeks of prison time. He had pleaded guilty last year to lying to investigators but until Friday had not been sentenced.
Prosecutors said Papadopoulos had lied to the government during a January 2017 interviewabout his meetings with Russians and that “[his] lies undermined investigators’ ability to challenge … or potentially detain or arrest” Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese professor who may have been a go-between for Papadopoulos and the Russian government.
Between his arrest and his sentencing, his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos (they married in March), had become a constant media presence in defense of her husband, and even directly appealed to Donald Trump for a pardon.
Papadopoulos told CNN that he “can’t guarantee” that he didn’t tell other campaign officials about the emails he had heard the Russian government had. “I might have, but I have no recollection of doing so. I can’t guarantee. All I can say is, my memory is telling me that I never shared it with anyone on the campaign,” he told CNN.
Three other former Trump aides—Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Michael Flynn—have either been convicted or pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes brought under the special counsel’s investigation. Papadopoulos is the first to be sentenced.
