Yuri Gripas/Reuters
Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced Friday to 14 days in jail and fined $9,500 for lying to the FBI about contacts with Russian intermediaries ahead of the 2016 election, according to a report from The New York Times. Papadopoulos, who is the first Trump campaign adviser to be sentenced as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling, pleaded guilty last year to lying to federal investigators during a meeting in January 2017. During that January meeting, HuffPost notes, Papadopoulos told investigators that he learned that the Russians had dirt on Clinton before he joined Trump’s campaign, in what he reportedly called a “very strange coincidence.” Because of Papadopoulos’ dishonesty, the Times added, federal prosecutors were unable to arrest a suspected Russian operative who fled the country last February. In the sentencing memo, cited by HuffPost, Mueller’s team wrote that Papadopoulos’ offense was “serious and caused damage to the government’s investigation.”
Papadopoulos also spoke out for the first time since his guilty plea Friday, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that he “can’t guarantee” that he didn’t tell the Trump campaign that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. “As far as I remember, I absolutely did not share this information with anyone on the campaign,” Papadopoulos said. “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.”