It was also revealed on Monday morning that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, secretly pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about the campaign’s outreach to Russian officials.
While neither move directly implicates Trump, the actions show how Mueller is accelerating his sprawling probe into possible collusion between campaign aides and the Kremlin, which has been accused by intelligence officials of meddling in the 2016 election.
The 14-page document outlining Papadopoulos’s plea deal describes a series of contacts with Russians who he understood to have connections to the Kremlin about obtaining damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
Papadopoulos became a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign in March 2016 and went on to cultivate relationships with two individuals apparently connected to Russia, labeled in the document only as “the Professor” and the “Female Russian National.” Papadopoulos kept campaign officials appraised of his contacts and efforts.
He was arrested in July.
The revelations in the plea deal appear to undercut Trump’s repeated claims that the sprawling probe is nothing more than a “witch hunt” and that his campaign had no contacts with Russian officials.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/...orities-244305
