In light of Nunes' comments today, I think it's a good time to remind everyone that Papadopoulos helped write Trump's first major foreign policy speech in April 2016 and told Greek media he met Trump on at least three occasions, once receiving from him a "blank check" job offer.
2/ And don't forget that Papadopoulos was with Trump's campaign from early March 2016 through January 2017, and met with Trump's Chief of Staff Reince Priebus *during the inauguration*. Nothing in any of that suggests he was a peripheral figure in Donald Trump's world.
3/ Trump had four different NatSec teams between March 2016 and January 2017, and one of the only people besides Sessions to survive across all four iterations was Papadopoulos. He had virtually no credentials, so you *better believe* he was bringing something else to the table.
4/ A day after Papadopoulos told Trump he was in contact with Kremlin agents and assisting them in connecting Putin and Trump, Papadopoulos was moved from off Middle East policy (his area) to Russia policy and sent him to Israel to talk Russia policy with an Israeli think tank.
5/ The campaign sent Papadopoulos to Athens twice in May 2016, the second time while Putin was visiting Athens to discuss getting Russian sanctions dropped. Papadopoulos met with the same people Putin did.
Does anyone think Trump didn't follow up on the results of these trips?
Does anyone think Trump didn't follow up on the results of these trips?
6/ Papadopoulos, nominally a Middle East expert, not a Russia expert, gave an interview to Russian media in September 2016 on Trump's Russia policy, noting Trump's opposition to sanctions. Does *anyone* think he was doing this with no direction from top campaign officials at all?
7/ My point is, Nunes' transparent attempt to separate Trump from Papadopoulos in his rewritten history of the Trump campaign isn't going to work. Papadopoulos was up to his *eyeballs* in Trump's Russia policy, and that policy was the most important part of the campaign to Trump.
