By Kimberly Johnson-
President Trump’s election campaign adviser has confessed to lying to the FBI about the timing of his meetings with alleged go-betweens for Russia.
George Papadopoulos has for the first time admitted the meetings happened while he was working for the campaign, and not before, according to unsealed court documents reveal.
Trump’s adviser said he had been told the Russians possessed “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. The recent admission sheds new light on the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election campaign.
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been charged with tax fraud in an unrelated case.
The 12 charges against Mr Manafort and one of his business associates, Rick Gates, include conspiracy to launder money.
Papadoupoulous initially falsely claimed to have met two figures with Russian connections before joining the Trump campaign in March 2016. However, the emergence of the news that he actually met them after joining the campaign alters the perspective of what the meeting was intended to achieve.
One of the two figures in question was an unnamed Russian woman who, Mr Papadopoulos believed, had connections to Russian government officials.
Trump’s adviser admitted seeking to use her connections in an effort to arrange a meeting “between the Campaign and Russian government officials”.
The other figure was an unnamed, London-based professor who was said to have “substantial connections to Russian government officials”.
According to the statement, the professor only took an interest in Mr Papadopoulos because of his status within the Trump campaign. The proposal to release Russian “dirt” on Mrs Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails” was mentioned by the professor at a breakfast meeting in a London hotel on or around 26 April 2016.
The professor said he had been informed about the compromising emails when he met senior Russian government officials on a recent trip to Moscow. The admission of lies are potentially damaging to the U.S President because it raises suspicions of a cover up, and lies at the heart of the purpose of the investigation. Deceiving the FBI is no small offence, especially in relation to an important investigation relating to the elections and the integrity of how it was won.