EXPOSED: Senior Adviser To Trump Was Intermediary For Contact With Russian Officials

For months now, we’ve wondered exactly how Russia and members of the Trump team were first introduced to one another. Who served as the intermediary for possible collusion between Russian agents and senior campaign officials such as Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner?

Meet George Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to the 2016 Trump for President campaign. He’s now named as a “person of interest” by Richard Burr (R-NC), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Vice chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) echoed Burr’s comments, adding that the committee hopes “to have the opportunity to interview him.”

Why the interest in Papadopoulos? He’s the person who sent several emails to officials in the Trump inner circle in which meetings between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were discussed. Specifically, as Newsweek notes:

“Investigators are looking into whether different members, like Papadopoulos, have colluded with Russian operatives prior to and throughout the election.”

Among the emails sent by Papadopoulos is one with the heading, “Meeting with Russian Leadership – Including Putin.” If such a meeting could be arranged, the overall focus, according to The Washington Post, was to be:

“Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump.”

Translation: Russian officials wanted to know what they would be getting on the policy front in exchange for providing assistance to the Trump campaign.

Papadopoulos is a somewhat shadowy figure who first worked as an adviser to the Ben Carson campaign before joining the Trump team in May of 2016. When asked for the names of people advising him on foreign policy, Trump gave Papadopoulos’ name, along with that of Carter Page, who also has extensive ties to Russian interests.

If indeed Papadopoulos was trying to set up meetings during the campaign, his testimony would be key to a full understanding of any collusion that might have occurred. It seems likely that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will also be interested in speaking to Papadopoulos.

One thing is certain: Trump and the leadership of his campaign certainly had a lot of relationships with people who were known to be involved in Russian business and political interests. Despite Trump’s cries of “fake news,” the evidence is increasingly pointing to very questionable actions taken by the illegitimate American head of state.

Featured Image Via ABC News