‘Excellent’ to ‘liar’: Trump hits out at indicted aide

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George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign aide indicted in the Russia inquiry, was dismissed as a “low level volunteer” and a “liar” by the US president on Tuesday.

Former campaign chair Paul Manafort and his assistant Rick Gates denied charges of money laundering brought by special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday, but it was also revealed that former foreign policy adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators about dealings with Russians – a potentially serious development for the White House.

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The indictments against Manafort and Gates do not mention President Trump or the campaign – though they do cover 2006-17 – but the Papadopoulos’ guilty plea is a second link between campaign officials and Russia, following contact between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

The US president has dismissed the relevance of the charges against Manafort and Gates, tweeting that the content of the indictments is proof of “no collusion” between the campaign and Russia. The charges relating to financial crimes indicate that Mueller, the special counsel looking into Russian influence on the 2016 US presidential election, has taken on a wide mandate.

An Instagram post by Trump showing Papadopoulos (3rd L) as part of his national security team. /Instagram Screenshot

Speculation that Trump could attempt to fire Mueller built up over the weekend, but the revelation that Papadopoulos had admitted lying over his contacts with Russia make this more difficult – the argument that Mueller has not found any links to possible collusion has been undermined.

On Tuesday, Trump hit out at Papadopoulos – who he described in March 2016 as “an excellent guy” – describing the former aide as a “low level volunteer” and “already proven to be a liar.”

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Court documents show that Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents working for Mueller about his interactions with “foreign nationals,” admitted meeting Russians in an attempt to get information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday the Trump campaign provided Mueller with emails relating to Papadopoulos.

"I think that Papadopoulos is an example of actually someone doing the wrong thing while the president's campaign did the right thing," Sanders said.

"All of his emails were voluntarily provided to the special counsel by the campaign and that is what led to the process and the place that we're in right now with the campaign fully cooperating and helping with that. What Papadopoulos did was lie, and that's on him, not on the campaign. And we can't speak for that.”

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