From Mike Malloy Website
Well, well, well... is our long national nightmare about to end? The Manafort and Gates indictments are a good start, but even more significant is the plea bargain we learned of Monday by former Trump energy and oil adviser (and Model UN Delegate!) George Papadopoulos. Finally, a link between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. There is is, collusion in all its glory.
"Several weeks after Donald Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination, his national campaign co-chairman urged a foreign policy adviser to meet with Russian officials to foster ties with that country's government.
"'Make the trip, if it is feasible,' Sam Clovis wrote in an August email to George Papadopoulos.
"The email, included in court papers unsealed Monday, shows how an otherwise low-profile adviser has become a focus of the federal probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
"Papadopoulos was in contact with several senior Trump campaign aides about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the court papers show. In addition to Clovis, who now serves as senior White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Papadopoulos wrote to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the newly released documents show.
"Papadopoulos was charged under seal in July and was arrested when he arrived at Dulles International Airport on July 27. His plea agreement indicates that he is cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. He pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal agents about his contacts with people with connections to the Russian government, filings show.
"Papadopoulos's efforts to arrange a meeting with Russian officials began days after he was named to Trump's campaign team and continued for months. At one point, he emailed Lewandowski 'to discuss Russia's interest in hosting Mr. Trump. Have been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when the time is right,' according to documents.
"A month later, he reiterated Russia's interest in an email to Manafort.
"In response, Manafort forwarded Papadopoulos's offer to his deputy Rick Gates, writing, 'We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.'
"Papadopoulos's proposed trip ultimately did not take place, court documents show.
"According to court papers, Papadopoulos lied to federal agents about one of his key contacts: a London-based professor he met in Italy in March 2016, days after he joined the Trump campaign.
"In a subsequent meeting in April, the professor told Papadopoulos that the Russian government had 'dirt' on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, including thousands of Clinton's emails.
"That conversation occurred weeks before the Democratic National Committee revealed that it had been hacked and believed that Russians were behind the attack. It also came about a month after an email account belonging to Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, was targeted with a phishing attempt that may have led to the hack of his emails. Podesta's emails were released by WikiLeaks in October 2016.
"One email quoted in court filings regarding the professor matches an exchange previously described to The Post in which Papadopoulos identified the professor as Joseph Mifsud, the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy.
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