Papadopoulos To Tell Congress About Series Of Suspicious Interactions Ahead Of 2016 Election
Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos will appear before a congressional task force Thursday.
Papadopoulos informed the task force that he hopes to discuss his interactions with nine people during the 2016 campaign who he now suspects may have been sent to spy on him.
At least one FBI informant, Stefan Halper, contacted Papadopoulos, who has been sentenced in the special counsel probe to lying to the FBI.
When former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos testifies Thursday before Congress he hopes to speak with lawmakers about his interactions with nine individuals he believes may have been sent to surveil him during and after the 2016 election.
A lawyer for Papadopoulos listed the nine people in a letter sent Monday to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Some of the names on the list have been widely discussed in the press: Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, FBI informant Stefan Halper, and alleged Steele dossier source Sergei Millian have all popped up during the course of Russiagate.
But Papadopoulos identified five other people — Azra Turk, Aziz Choukri, Charles Tawil, Terrence Dudley and Gregory Baker — whose interactions he now questions.
Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to 14 days in jail on Sept. 7 as part of the special counsel’s investigation, volunteered to speak to a congressional task force investigating the FBI and Department of Justice’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The 31-year-old Chicago native was a key component of the probe. The FBI opened up its investigation in late July 2016 based on information that Downer shared with his Australian counterparts more than two months after he met in London with Papadopoulos. Despite the early interest in the Trump aide, the FBI and special counsel appears not to have found evidence linking him to a conspiracy to collude with Russians.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/24/george-papadopoulos-congress-suspicious-interactions/
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Dudley, who has been interviewed by the special counsel’s office, said he was intrigued by how Papadopoulos came to work for the Trump campaign from London.
“We approached him from a more fascinated standpoint trying to figure out what his game was,” Dudley told TheDCNF in September by phone from London. “Who’s funding him to be here [in London]? How does he actually get away with doing that?”
Dudley told TheDCNF he told Mueller’s team that he viewed Papadopoulos as “naive,” especially in his remarks about resetting relations with Russia, but that he did not detect any nefarious activity on the part of the Trump associate.
Papadopoulos has flagged one other interaction he wants lawmakers to investigate.
He has claimed that shortly before his arrest in July 2017, an Israeli-American businessman named Charles Tawil flew to the Greek island of Mykonos to meet him and his then-girlfriend, Simona Mangiante.
Papadopoulos claims that while in Greece, Tawil requested they travel together to Israel. There, Tawil gave Papadopoulos $10,000 in cash during a meeting in a hotel room.
The cash is referenced in one court filing submitted by the special counsel’s office.
Tawil has disputed Papadopoulos’s claims about their interaction. He told TheDCNF he gave Papadopoulos the cash as part of a business deal that failed to materialize.