Former Trump adviser sentenced to prison

George Papadopoulos, former advisor to US President Donald Trump, has just been sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to the September 7 ruling of the court in Washington, D.C., Papadopoulos, 31, will also be on probation for 12 months after his release, must perform 200 hours of community service, and pay a fine of $9,500.

Papadopoulos is the first former Trump aide to be arrested by US authorities in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Last October, he confessed to lying to the FBI about the timing of meetings with suspected representatives of Moscow.

According to the BBC, speaking in court on September 7, Papadopoulos asserted that he was "a patriotic American" but had made the mistake of lying. Papadopoulos said that his entire life had been turned upside down and he hoped for a second chance to rebuild his life. The former assistant to the current White House leader further emphasized that "this investigation (referring to the investigation into suspected Russian interference in the US presidential election two years ago) has global significance and sheds light on the truth".

Born in Chicago, Papadopoulos worked as an oil analyst in London before joining the Trump campaign as a volunteer foreign policy adviser in March 2016. He quickly became friends with a mysterious Maltese academic named Joseph Mifsud.

Professor Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians were “playing dirty” against Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump’s Democratic rival in the race for the White House, in the form of “thousands of emails”. The young political adviser immediately informed Mr Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, and other members of his campaign that he could arrange a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the November 2016 general election.

The indictment released last week said that "although some in the room objected to Papadopoulos's suggestion, Trump nodded in agreement and looked to Jeff Sessions (now the US Attorney General), who seemed to like the idea and said the campaign needed to study it."

In an interview that aired on CNN, Papadopoulos admitted that, although Trump appeared to agree with his idea, he was “not committed in any way” to the proposal to hold a meeting with the Kremlin leader. But Senator Sessions was “really enthusiastic.” Last November, when testifying before Congress, Sessions insisted that he had “rejected” Papadopoulos’s proposal.

US authorities were alerted to the matter by an Australian diplomat in mid-2016, after Papadopoulos told him over drinks in London about his meetings with Professor Mifsud. When the FBI interviewed Papadopoulos in January 2017, he falsely claimed to have met two individuals with ties to Russia before joining Trump’s team in March 2016. In fact, he had met them after becoming an adviser to Trump.

Speaking outside the court on September 7, Papadopoulos' attorney, Thomas Breen, called his client a "fool" and "ignorant" for lying to the FBI. The attorney asserted that "the US president has done more to obstruct the investigation than Papadopoulos."

Tuan Anh