(THREAD) BREAKING: George Papadopoulos claims to have had direct, significant contact with Trump on two occasions the White House never disclosed—and possibly a one-on-one meeting. His claims prove Trump is lying about his relationship with Papadopoulos. Please read on and share. 
(2) After Papadopoulos' plea affidavit became public, Trump quickly attacked him as a "low-level" staffer, a "liar," someone "few people knew," and a mere "volunteer" (which many players on his campaign were, including his Campaign Manager, Paul Manafort). nytimes.com/2017/10/31/us/…
(3) But Papadopoulos' claims of having spoken personally with Trump multiple times—and this does not include his appearance at a meeting of Trump's NatSec team at the Trump International Hotel on March 31, 2016—confirm, if true, that Trump has been lying about their relationship.
(4) Papadopoulos told Greek media—Athens daily Kathimerini, by reputation the New York Times of Greece—that he had a 5-minute phone interview with Trump several days prior to being announced as a member of Trump's National Security team on March 21, 2016: translate.google.com/translate?act=…
(5) "Low-level" staffers don't get directly interviewed by presidential candidates. Nor do "volunteers" in the sense Trump used the term—i.e., an aide whose services are of so little interest to the campaign that they are passively accepted rather than the result of an interview.
(6) That Donald Trump personally interviewed Papadopoulos for his position on the National Security team means Trump knew who he was and why he wanted him aboard when he called him an "excellent guy"—the only member of his NatSec team he chose to personally vouch for in that way.
(7) But *much* more startling is a second interaction with Trump Papadopoulos has disclosed—this one in December of 2016. Papadopoulos told Kathimerini "the new president had given him a 'blank check' to choose any role he wanted in the government to be formed." This is stunning.
(8) Prior to today, we knew of not a single Trump aide—including his most loyal campaign staffers—who had been given a "blank check" to choose any role in the Trump administration. If Papadopoulos told Kathimerini the truth, it means he performed some *massive* service for Trump.
(9) The possibility that George Papadopoulos had performed some significant service for Trump that Trump knew about, had acknowledged, and intended to richly reward is bolstered by Papadopoulos' claim to Greek government officials that he had "helped Trump win the presidency."
(10) The basis of Papadopoulos' claim he "helped Trump win the presidency" is unclear, but if Trump chose to reward his service with a "blank check" it had to be more than acting as a liaison with the Greek-American community or talking to scholars in Israel about oil/gas issues.
(11) Far more likely is the service Papadopoulos rendered to Trump relates to what distinguished him within the NatSec team—not his experience (none) or his CV (largely faked) but the high-level Russian connections he alerted the Trump campaign to on March 24, 2016 at the latest.
(12) And we must now say "at the latest," as Papadopoulos had already developed Russian connections by March 18th, 2016—the approximate date of his one-on-one call with then-candidate Trump—so there would be no reason for him not to mention his connections to the candidate then.
(13) If Papadopoulos used word of his connections to get his job on the NatSec team, it'd explain his boldness in a) emailing the team (which team he was the junior member of) about those connections 72 hours post-hire, and b) continuing to email the team about it for two months.
(14) There's more breaking news on George Papadopoulos—specifically, his trips abroad—that might explain what service he rendered for Trump that earned him a "blank check" to choose any role in the new administration he wanted, and I'll be breaking that shortly in another thread.
(15) But Papadopoulos seems to indicate to Greek media a *third* and even more substantial direct and undisclosed contact with Donald Trump: a face-to-face meeting on the day of Trump's AIPAC speech (March 21, 2016) which was also the day that Trump officially hired Papadopoulos.
(16) The Kathimerini piece cited in this thread notes, as to Trump's March 21, 2016 hire of Papadopoulos—which he announced in an interview at The Washington Post that day—that "the two men met for the first time just that breakfast." This could be read any one of several ways.
(17) The most likely reading is Trump and Papadopoulos met in person on 3/21/16. Kathimerini says during the (approximately 3/18/16) Trump-Papadopoulos call, Trump invited Papadopoulos to a speech scheduled for the same day as their breakfast meeting—Trump spoke to AIPAC 3/21/16.
(18) I've spoken at length with the author of the article, Marianna Kakaounaki, as her article at one point conflates the event of March 21, 2016 and March 31, 2016—easy to do, for obvious reasons. But she indicated Papadopoulos himself conflated the two dates in his interview.
(19) That said, Papadopoulos was clear on having been invited to a "speech" during his call with Trump several days prior to his March 21, 2016 hire—and did indeed attend the said speech—and Trump *gave* no speech on March 31, 2016, while he did speak to AIPAC on March 21, 2016.
(20) This suggests the breakfast meeting Papadopoulos spoke of was on March 21, 2016. This is bolstered by Kakaounaki's article, which says Trump and Papadopoulos had "met for the first time just that breakfast" on the day Trump called Papadopoulos an "excellent guy" (March 21).
(21) If this reading of Papadopoulos' words is correct, it means Trump had a one-on-one call with Papadopoulos, then invited him to his AIPAC speech, then dined with him before announcing him as a member of his NatSec team at the offices of The Washington Post on March 21, 2016.
(22) Trump inviting Papadopoulos to his speech at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) event makes sense, as a) all Papadopoulos' professional research was on Israeli oil exploration, and b) Papadopoulos' highest-level contact, Panos Kammenos, was speaking there.
(23) If Papadopoulos disclosed his high-level Russian and Russian-ally contacts to Trump during their (approximately March 18, 2016) call, he would have mentioned Panos Kammenos—a Putin ally who was then in the States and, as Papadopoulos would've known, about to speak at AIPAC.
(24) Papadopoulos is unavailable now, so he can't clarify which "speech" and "breakfast [meeting]" Trump invited him to, but Kakaounaki confirmed to me that he said the invite to breakfast was "last-minute" on the day of the speech—whereas the March 31 NatSec meeting was planned.
(25) Moreover, not only do we know Trump gave a speech relevant to Papadopoulos' research on March 21, 2016—but no speech of any kind on March 31, 2016—we also know Trump was at his hotel site (where Papadopoulos says the breakfast happened) on March 21st.
(CONCLUSION) So all signs point to Trump and Papadopoulos having at least two one-on-one conversations, possibly three, that Trump never disclosed—which conversations (and any actions they spurred) resulted in Trump offering Papadopoulos a blank check to choose any job he wanted.
(PS) Based on my research, I've a *strong* suspicion what the service Papadopoulos rendered was—more on that soon. But remember: this week we learned Papadopoulos directly asked the campaign to (a) meet with Russians, and (b) travel to Russia, and as to the *first* they said yes.
(SOURCES) When the media reported Trump's campaign had "shot down" Papadopoulos' entreaties to set up a Kremlin meeting, I said they were misreading the emails. I was right, as we now know from new documents showing Clovis encouraged Papadopoulos' efforts. reuters.com/article/us-usa…
(SOURCES2) Here's key text from the Reuters article. The White House responded yesterday by calling Clovis a "low-level" staffer. In fact, he was the National Co-Chair of the Trump Campaign and held the title of Chief Policy Advisor. How scared must one be to tell a lie that big?
(SOURCES3) Key facts from Reuters and elsewhere: Papadopoulos wanted to meet Russians personally; in a 4/25/16 email to a Trump aide, he says Russians "tend to speak a bit more openly in 'neutral' cities"; by August—at the LATEST—someone above Clovis was greenlighting such trips.
(SOURCES4) Another fact I'll ask folks to remember in advance of the breaking news that's coming shortly in another thread: by June 3, 2016—at the LATEST—Papadopoulos was in contact with Hope Hicks (i.e., Trump) about campaign outreach to Greek officials. ekathimerini.com/222996/article…
(SOURCES5) "Breakfast" may be a mistranslation for "morning," and "speech" for "press conference." (In either case, we'd be speaking of the 21st, so the mistranslation wouldn't matter.) Also, the March 21 meeting may not have been between just two people—that's also acknowledged.
