City of Alexandria, Va.
George Papadopoulos communicated with top Trump campaign officials—including Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn—about his foreign outreach efforts, according to The Washington Post. The former campaign aide, who pleaded guilty last year to making false statements about his Russia contacts to the FBI, was also encouraged by deputy communications director Bryan Lanza to take an interview with a Russian news agency, the newspaper reported. Papadopoulos emailed with Steve Bannon in December 2016 about his contact with Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bannon forwarded his email to Michael Flynn, who responded, "Will work this one." "Stay in touch and, at some point, we should get together,” Flynn told Papadopoulos in an email later that month. The former aide also communicated with Bannon about Egypt's interest in arranging a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and Trump. The communications fly in the face of Trump's descriptions of Papadopoulos as a "young, low level volunteer." Another campaign staffer, Michael Caputo, insisted he was merely a "coffee boy."