Robert Mueller raises pressure on Donald Trump with Papadopoulos-Russia link
Bloomberg|
Updated: Oct 31, 2017, 11.22 PM IST
WASHINGTON: The first charges unsealed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of the presidential election suggest a sweeping investigation, but one focus is clear: He’s building a case that Donald Trump’s campaign was in close touch with Russian officials who aimed to defeat Hillary Clinton.
That hypothesis begins with a cooperating witness, George Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old junior foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russian operatives. According to a court filing by Mueller, at least two high-level Trump campaign supervisors and other officials were aware of Papadopoulos’s contacts and communications with the Russians.
Papadopoulos received information from the same Russians in April 2016 that they had thousands of emails containing “dirt” on Clinton — about three months before the WikiLeaks organisation began to release troves of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, according to the court filing. While prosecutors say Papadopoulos shared information about his contacts with the Russians with the campaign, they don’t say whether he told superiors about the emails.
“People thought there was smoke, but this is evidence there was fire,” said Philip Hilder, a former federal prosecutor who specialises in white-collar criminal defence. Before laying out the charges against Papadopoulos on Monday, Mueller unsealed indictments against former campaign manager Paul Manafort and an aide, Rick Gates, who have been put under house arrest. Those indictments focus on their business dealings without mentioning Russian collusion, and the Papadopoulos charges don’t name the campaign officials said to have received his information.
According to prosecutors, various campaign officials supported Papadopoulos’s contacts with Russians. (“Great work,” an unnamed supervisor responds to one of his emails reporting back.) How high that support went, and who knew about it, will be an important thread for prosecutors.
That hypothesis begins with a cooperating witness, George Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old junior foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russian operatives. According to a court filing by Mueller, at least two high-level Trump campaign supervisors and other officials were aware of Papadopoulos’s contacts and communications with the Russians.
Papadopoulos received information from the same Russians in April 2016 that they had thousands of emails containing “dirt” on Clinton — about three months before the WikiLeaks organisation began to release troves of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, according to the court filing. While prosecutors say Papadopoulos shared information about his contacts with the Russians with the campaign, they don’t say whether he told superiors about the emails.
“People thought there was smoke, but this is evidence there was fire,” said Philip Hilder, a former federal prosecutor who specialises in white-collar criminal defence. Before laying out the charges against Papadopoulos on Monday, Mueller unsealed indictments against former campaign manager Paul Manafort and an aide, Rick Gates, who have been put under house arrest. Those indictments focus on their business dealings without mentioning Russian collusion, and the Papadopoulos charges don’t name the campaign officials said to have received his information.
According to prosecutors, various campaign officials supported Papadopoulos’s contacts with Russians. (“Great work,” an unnamed supervisor responds to one of his emails reporting back.) How high that support went, and who knew about it, will be an important thread for prosecutors.
