Iran Press / America: Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents investigating ties between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign.
Papadopoulos acknowledged that he had lied to investigators about contacts with a Kremlin-linked professor who informed him in April 2016 that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and “thousands of emails”. Papadopoulos had told investigators that the conversation happened before he became a Trump campaign adviser, when in fact he had worked for the campaign for more than a month at the time.
He also received a year of supervision, 200 hours of community service, and a $9,500 fine. The judge in the case, Randolph Moss, said he wished to send a message about the seriousness of lying to the FBI. Papadopoulos acknowledged a “dreadful mistake” and apologized.
According to a CNN report, Papadopoulos speaking in the courtroom said: “People point and snicker and I am terribly depressed. This investigation has global implications and the truth matters.”
Papadopoulos became the second person to be sentenced to prison in a prosecution brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. The Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison for lying to investigators about his conversations with former Trump aide Rick Gates, who last month testified in court against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted on fraud charges but has not yet been sentenced.
The White House did not immediately issue a statement on the sentencing. Press secretary Sarah Sanders said last year that Papadopoulos, 31, had “a minimal role, if one at all” in the campaign.
In his time with the Trump campaign, the delicacy of Papadopoulos’s mission to broker a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was not always reflected in his conduct. Told by the Kremlin-linked professor, Joseph Mifsud, that a Russian operative was “Putin’s niece,” Papadopoulos credulously repeated that assertion in an email to Trump campaign officials, prosecutors said. Russian President Vladimir Putin does not have a niece.
