{"id":53003,"date":"2017-11-17T11:39:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T11:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=53003"},"modified":"2017-11-17T11:39:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T11:39:32","slug":"papadopoulos-claimed-trump-phone-call-and-larger-campaign-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/politics\/papadopoulos-claimed-trump-phone-call-and-larger-campaign-role.html","title":{"rendered":"Papadopoulos claimed Trump phone call and larger campaign role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Papadopoulos claimed Trump phone call and larger campaign role<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Papadopoulos claimed Trump phone call and larger campaign role:- George Papadopoulos claimed last year that Donald Trump telephoned him to discuss his new position as a foreign policy adviser to his presidential campaign and that the two had at least one personal introductory meeting that the White House has not acknowledged.<\/span><\/p>\n

Papadopoulos also claimed that he\u2019d been given a \u201cblank check\u201d to choose a senior Trump administration job and authorized to represent the candidate in overseas meetings with foreign leaders, and at a campaign event in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

Papadapoulos made the claims in several interviews with two Greek journalists during and after the 2016 election, one of whom detailed them for POLITICO. They contradict assertions by Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other Trump officials that Papadapoulos was a bit player in the campaign whom they barely remember.<\/span><\/p>\n

One person close to Papadopoulos told POLITICO that his claims about personal interactions with Trump were untrue, but declined to elaborate. The two Greek journalists were skeptical as well, saying Papadopoulos was prone to self-promotional exaggeration. \u201cEveryone knows I helped him [get] elected, now I want to help him with the presidency,\u201d Papadopoulos said in one text message published by the newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

But they also reported that Papadapolous reveled in the benefits of his newfound fame \u2014 at least in Greece \u2014 as an adviser to a major party nominee for the U.S. presidency. \u201cHe had acquired a new status in Athens,\u201d wrote the newspaper, Kathimerini, which noted that Papadopoulos had been \u201cbestowed with awards, wined and dined by prominent Athenians and even appointed to the judging committee of a beauty pageant on a Greek island.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The true nature of Papadapoulos\u2019s role on the campaign and relationship with Trump is important now that he has emerged as a key figure \u2013 and cooperating witness — in special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s probe of Russian interference in the election. In court documents unsealed last month, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his communications with individuals claiming to represent the Russian government and who may have been trying to infiltrate or influence Trump\u2019s campaign by offering him \u201cdirt\u201d and incriminating emails about rival Hillary Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among Papadapoulos\u2019s claims to a Kathimerini reporter and editor was that Trump called him personally in March 2016 after he had been tapped for Trump\u2019s foreign policy advisory team. Papadopoulos said Trump him he had been recommended for the job by Trump\u2019s former Republican primary rival, Ben Carson.<\/span><\/p>\n

During an \u201cinformal\u201d five-minute phone conversation, Trump made small talk and invited the young campaign aide to travel from his Chicago home to Washington to attend his March 21 campaign event at Trump\u2019s still-unfinished Pennsylvania Avenue hotel several days later, said Marianna Kakaounaki, an investigative reporter for the well-regarded Greek language daily. It was there that Papadopoulos said he was personally introduced to the future president.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he left the race and supported Trump, [Carson] suggested that the young Greek-American join the team,\u201d according to an English translation of Kakanouaki\u2019s Dec. 11 2016 article.<\/span><\/p>\n

Papadopoulos and Trump then had \u201ca telephone appointment, which did not last for more than five minutes, but shortly before closing, the candidate then invited him to a speech,\u201d the article explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

The timing proved fortuitous for Papadopoulos, as March 21 was also the day Trump was asked to name his foreign policy advisers during a meeting with The Washington Post\u2019s editorial board. Papadopoulos wasn\u2019t just one of the five named by Trump, he was also the only one singled out with a personal endorsement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s an energy and oil consultant,\u201d Trump told the editorial board. \u201cExcellent guy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From that day on, the two Kathimerini journalists would write in several articles, Papadopoulos exploited Trump\u2019s personal endorsement, and his unpaid position on the National Security Advisory Committee, as much as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kakaounaki and her executive editor, Alexis Papachelas, were interested in tracking the apparent success of the young Greek-American campaign adviser and his potential influence on issues involving Greece and Greek-Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because some of their articles were for the Greek-language edition of the paper, they never reached a wider audience. And the journalists never published some key details of what he told them about his role on Trump\u2019s campaign and presidential transition team. \u201cMy angle was always the Greek angle. This wasn\u2019t part of my story,\u201d Kakaounaki said in reference to Papadopoulos\u2019 claimed interactions with Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump officials have said that Trump only met Papadopoulos fleetingly as part of a large group of advisers who joined the president at a March 31 meeting of the advisory committee at his Washington hotel for what was mainly a photo opportunity. (In a puzzling twist, Papadopoulos insisted to Kakaounaki and Papachelas that the meeting \u2014 a photo of which Trump tweeted that day \u2014 actually occurred on the day they met: March 21, after Trump held a campaign event at the hotel.)<\/span><\/p>\n

It was at that meeting that Papadopoulos pitched Trump on his ongoing efforts to set up a meeting with the candidate and Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the Oct. 30 disclosure that Papadopoulos was cooperating with authorities, Trump tweeted that \u201cfew people knew the young, low-level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Papadopoulos’ lawyer, Thomas Breen and Trump\u2019s then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, declined to comment about his claims. White House officials didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sessions, who chaired the foreign policy advisory committee, at first denied remembering Papadopoulos\u2019s comments at the meeting both men attended. But in his Tuesday testimony before the House Judiciary Committee he said that he recalled telling Papadopoulos not to pursue contacts with Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

In interviews with POLITICO, Kakaounaki portrayed Papadapoulos as a young man enjoying a heady moment of fame, particularly in his ancestral homeland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our interview, I felt that he was probably lucky, having just met Trump in person and then Trump being interviewed and mentioning his name,\u201d said Kakaounaki. \u201cThat mention opened a lot of Greek doors for him, and probably in other countries too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Papadopoulos agreed with that assessment in an interview with Kakaounaki, she said. \u201cHe acknowledged that he was lucky, because they [had] just met\u201d when Trump gave him his personal endorsement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s selection of the young and inexperienced Papadopoulos \u2013 along with another little-known energy consultant, Carter Page \u2013 followed months of criticism about his lack of national security expertise, but also struck foreign policy insiders as odd.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s glowing endorsement of Papadopoulos as an \u201cexcellent\u201d guy was surprising given that Papadopoulos had just a few months experience as a volunteer adviser for Carson, and more so after reports that he had embellished his resume \u2014 including his role at the Model United Nations and as a research fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Papadapoulos shared his different version of events with Kakaounaki and Papachelas over a period of several months, as they traveled through the U.S. last year to profile prominent Greek Americans working for the various campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Trump went from dark horse to front-runner and ultimately president-elect, seeming to make Papadopoulos an influential Greek-American, Kakaounaki and Papachelas interviewed the Trump adviser in person, by phone and via text message.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also interviewed him in Greece, where Papadopoulos traveled at least twice to meet with senior government officials, including President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, as a Trump representative.<\/span><\/p>\n

Papadopoulos\u2019 international travels are of interest to congressional investigators trying to understand the Russian influence operation in the U.S. and Trump associates\u2019 potential roles in it, according to two sources familiar with those probes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The House intelligence committee is interested in the Greek newspaper reports, as they provide a window into Papadopoulos\u2019 activities and relationships with the campaign in real time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the committee is interested in the role that Papadopoulos played in the campaign, especially given the way that the White House has downplayed his role,\u201d one committee source told POLITICO, noting that Papadopoulos still hadn\u2019t provided testimony before it. \u201cWe certainly want to know about any meetings he had with senior campaign officials, including the President, about his travel abroad, and about any meetings he took part in with foreign counterparts or government officials.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During his trips abroad during and after the campaign \u2014 including to Israel, Greece and Cyprus \u2014Papadopoulos often dropped names of campaign officials and tried to impress people with his connections, Kakaounaki said in her stories and in interviews.<\/span><\/p>\n

“All this time, I inform him of the Greek and Cypriot issues,\u201d he also said, in one reported remark after Trump won the election, \u201cbut the positions or the strategy that will follow in the White House are not finalized.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Two weeks before the election, Papadopoulos informed the journalists that he had \u201cleft the campaign\u201d because he had \u201cdone his piece.\u201d A week later, however, he said he had come back to the campaign, but that he had to follow the campaign directive that no one was to talk about anything but the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails.<\/span><\/p>\n

And two days before the election, Papadopoulos attended a campaign event in Astoria hosted by a local association representing Greek Cypriot Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Trump considered it important to come and talk to you,\u201d he told the crowd in his introduction, before sitting and nodding approvingly when the rally organizer spoke, according to the Kathimerini story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, as Trump prepared for his inauguration, Papadopoulos boasted to the reporters that he had Trump’s ear, was on the transition team and that Trump had written him a “blank check” for whatever position in the administration he wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n

After serving the next eight years in the Trump administration, he said, he planned to move to Greece to work on energy issues of mutual interest to the U.S. and Greece.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/11\/17\/george-papadopoulos-trump-greece-russia-245668<\/span><\/p>\n

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