August 21, 2018: If Donald J. Trump Weren't President He'd Already Face Felony Charges

 

8/21/18: If Donald J. Trump seems rattled lately, it’s no surprise. Friday, Special Counsel Mueller filed an eye-popping sentencing document related to former Trump 2016 campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, regarding the ongoing Russian investigation. 

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“The defendant’s false statements were intended to harm the investigation, and did so.” 

Sentencing document for George Papadopoulos

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Papadopoulos, center, with dark glasses. 

Fresh news breaks this afternoon. Michael Cohen has pled guilty to bank fraud, tax evasion and violating campaign finance laws. Two of eight felonies were, according to Cohen, carried out at the behest of “a candidate for federal office.” 

That would be Donald J. Trump! 

The president suffers a second stinging defeat when former campaign manager Paul Manafort is convicted on eight felonies.

 

Even ignoring the felonious pair, this has been a bad week for Trump. Consider the case of George Papadopoulos, which came to an end (we think) recently. (His sentencing document is now available.)

 

Papadopoulos, billed as a Trump foreign policy adviser during the 2016 campaign, was interviewed by the F.B.I. in January 2017, just seven days after Trump took office. He was arrested in July and pled guilty to a felony count of perjury in October 2017. At the time of his plea we were told he had been a cooperating witness for months. There were even hints he might have been wearing a wire. 

Team Trump began dissembling at once. “George Who?” everyone from Trump down to Kellyanne Conway wondered. 

The president responded via Twitter at the time – because of course he did. He called any idea that members of his campaign had been colluding with Russians “Fake News.” He rolled out his “I’m Rubber, You’re Glue” Defense and blamed Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas for all the problems in his campaign. “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George,” he claimed, “who has already proven to be a liar [emphasis added here and below]. Check the DEMS!” 

Michael Caputo, another campaign adviser, was even more forceful in his response to the Papadopoulos deal. “The leaders of the Washington office of the campaign didn’t even know who he was until his name appeared in the press,” Caputo insisted. “The guy was – he was the coffee boy. I mean, you might’ve called him a foreign policy analyst [no, Trump called him that], but, in fact, you know, if he was going to wear a wire, all we’d know now is whether he prefers a caramel macchiato over a regular American coffee in conversations with his barista. He had nothing to do with the campaign.” 

The veracity of these denials was undercut when a picture of Papadopoulos sitting in a high-level meeting with Trump and his campaign team was posted and no signs of an order from Starbucks were seen in his hands.

Papadopoulos seated to the left of the man in the blue tie. 

 

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The president hires a LOT of liars. 

SO: LET’S SEE how such denials hold up now that the sentencing document has been issued. It begins: 

The government submits this memorandum in connection with the sentencing of George Papadopoulos scheduled for September 7, 2018. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a).

 

Of course, if Trump fans read that first sentence, we can expect them to start slobbering about some “perjury trap” that snapped closed on poor George’s left toes. 

One lie! He told one lie! Does a poor “coffee boy” deserve to go to jail for that? No! Jail Hillary! And do we really want the president going into the same lion’s den, where “17 angry Democrats” await, ready to chew off both legs and maybe other favorite presidential appendages? 

What “trap” did Papadopoulos step into? The sentencing document is clear: 

The defendant’s crime was serious and caused damage to the government’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The defendant lied in order to conceal his contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries during the campaign and made his false statements to investigators on January 27, 2017, early in the investigation, when key investigative decisions, including who to interview and when, were being made.

 

…the defendant repeatedly lied throughout the [January] interview in order to conceal the timing and significance of information the defendant had received regarding the Russians possessing “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, as well as his own outreach to Russia on behalf of the campaign. The defendant’s false statements were intended to harm the investigation, and did so.

 

In other words, Papadopoulos lied about contacts with Russians. He lied in January 2017, at the start of the investigation. 

Why? Why would a humble “coffee boy” perjure himself if all he did was ask other members of Team Trump, “Would you like cream and sugar with your coffee? 

Papadopoulos didn’t want investigators to know he had been riding a broom during the campaign. He didn’t want them to know who told him to mount that broom and fly off to meet suspicious characters – who “happened” to be Russians – who “happened” to have dirt on Hillary. 

You know: Exactly the kind of people and information that would help throw the election to Trump.

 

The sentencing document also makes it clear F.B.I. agents warned the Coffee Boy not to lie. “The defendant said he wanted to help the agents with their investigation” and “proceeded to answer questions, and to lie, for more than two hours.” 

[Papadopoulos] lied about his contacts with Russians and Russian intermediaries during the course of the campaign to minimize both his own role as a witness and the extent of the campaign’s knowledge of his contacts…while serving as a policy advisor to the Trump campaign, the defendant met a professor of diplomacy in London (the “Professor”) who introduced the defendant to a Russian woman (the “Female Russian National”) and to a Russian national connected to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the “Russia MFA Connection”). The Professor told the defendant that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” and the defendant had a series of communications over a period of months with the Professor, the Female Russian National, and the Russia MFA Connection in which they discussed arranging a meeting between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

 

Here, any semi-literate citizen would be forced to pause and ponder. Caputo (he of the “coffee boy” comment), helped set up a secret meeting with a representative of the Russian government and Roger Stone, in May 2016. 

In June, three of the top Trump campaign people –and more Russians offering more dirt on Clinton –met at Trump Tower in New York City. 

A sensible person must wonder: What else was the campaign up to and why was the “coffee boy” trying so hard to lead investigators astray? 

Papadopoulos lied with abandon: 

With respect to timing, the defendant acknowledged that the Professor had told him about the Russians possessing “dirt” on Clinton, but he stated multiple times that this occurred before he joined the Trump campaign and that it was a “very strange coincidence” to be told of the “dirt” before he started working for the campaign. [That was a lie.]

 

…the defendant met the Professor for the first time on or about March 14, 2016, after the defendant had already learned he would be a foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign; the Professor showed interest in the defendant only after learning of his role on the campaign; and the Professor told the defendant about the Russians possessing “dirt” on Clinton in late April 2016, more than a month after the defendant had joined the campaign.

 

The “coffee boy” was clearly lying to cover up for the campaign. 

The defendant also falsely told the FBI that he met the Female Russian National before he joined the campaign, that he had “no” relationship at all with her, and that the extent of their communications was her sending emails – “Just, ‘Hi, how are you?’ . . . That’s it.” In truth, however, the defendant first met the Female Russian National on or about March 24, 2016, after he had joined the campaign; he believed that she had connections to high-level Russian government officials and could help him arrange a potential foreign policy trip to Russia; he informed the campaign of his beliefs regarding her connections; and during the campaign he emailed and spoke over Skype on numerous occasions with her about the potential trip to Russia.

 

The defendant also did not reveal his extensive interactions with the Russia MFA Connection, including over Skype, even though he was asked if he had met during the campaign with any Russian nationals or “[a]nyone with a Russian accent.”

 

Papadopoulos knew he was making connections with Russian government agents. He knew they were going to give the campaign dirt on Clinton. He informed the campaign about his connections. 

He kept lying: 

On at least a dozen occasions during the interview, the defendant falsely insisted that his interactions with the Professor took place before the defendant joined the Trump campaign. At various points during the interview, the defendant said the interactions took place “prior to even talking to anybody on Trump”; they had “nothing to do with Trump”; “this was before I even got with-with Trump”; “I wasn’t even on the Trump team”; “that wasn’t even on the radar”; “I wasn’t even on the orbit of Trump at the time”; and “This isn’t like [the Professor’s] messaging me while I’m in April with Trump or something.” 

 

Papadopoulos expected to be rewarded for lying. 

Eventually, Papadopoulos hired a lawyer. In February 2017, he spoke with the F.B.I. a second time. He was offered a chance to “correct his false statements” but chose not to. Meanwhile, he “deactivated his Facebook account that contained communications with the Professor and the Russian MFA Connection and obtained a new phone.” 

Prosecutors note that in the hours following his first F.B.I. interview, Papadopoulos was unfazed. As far as he could tell his lies had worked. Papadopoulos expected to be repaid for any risks he had taken. 

The sentencing document notes that on that same day he began talking to other members of the campaign about a future high-level position, 

…with the National Security Council, the State Department, or the Energy Department. On January 27, 2017, in the hours after being interviewed by the FBI, the defendant submitted his biography and a description of work he did on the campaign in an effort to obtain a position as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Energy Department.

 

Instead, he found himself headed for jail.

BLOGGER’S NOTE (12/22/20): It can be interesting to note how these stories play out later. The “Coffee Boy,” a person Trump has already labeled a “liar,” will later get a full pardon from…President Trump.