Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos said on Friday that he is considering withdrawing from a cooperation agreement he entered into with special counsel Robert Mueller, the investigator probing allegations of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government.
“I believe there was tremendous misconduct on the government's behalf regarding my case,” Papadopoulos told “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade. “And given certain information I learned just yesterday that I can't publicly disclose right now, I'm actually even considering withdrawing my agreement I have come to with the government.”
Papadopoulos, who advised the Trump campaign on foreign policy issues and was sentenced to jail time in September as part of a plea deal with Mueller for lying to investigators, said he felt he had been set up by the government and that his plea deal was the result of inadequate counsel.
“Let's just say maybe it was chaotic moment when I pled and that's exactly why I have new counsel now,” he said. “And we are actively looking into new options. And possibly withdrawing from this agreement right now.”
He declined to say whether the special counsel’s team had tried to get him to turn on the president but said that he continued to support Trump’s presidency. Papadopoulos has threatened to withdraw from his plea deal before, and on Friday said that “by principle and by precedent” he did not want to serve out any jail time because he felt he had been “framed.”
He also echoed claims by Trump and his allies that bias within the Justice Department was to blame for the Russia probe.
Papadopoulos, who prosecutors say revealed to the Australian ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2016 that he knew Russia had acquired emails relating to then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, said Friday that he did not recall such a conversation, and agreed with Kilmeade’s suggestion that if he was the basis for the Mueller investigation, the probe would be “a complete, total sham.”
He also repeatedly claimed to have no contacts with Russia.
“As I've stated, all my contacts were completely in the Middle East, and Israel in particular and Europe. I had absolutely no contacts in Russia,” he said. “Just given that, how on Earth could a man like me be at the center of a Russia conspiracy unless I was completely framed by Western intelligence to make it seem that Papadopoulos was interacting with Russians and that he's the patsy that started this whole investigation?”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/26/papadopolous-plea-deal-942346