Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has determined he will not exit his plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, said his wife Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos.
George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year to misleading FBI agents concerning his contacts with Russians. He said in his guilty plea he would comply with Mueller’s team and “provide information regarding any and all matters as to which the government deems relevant.” Despite this cooperation, Mueller earlier this month recommended to a federal judge that Papadopoulos get up to six months behind bars for lying to the FBI.
Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos said that her husband will continue with his current plea deal, ABC News reports. The comments come after ABC reported earlier this month that George Papadopoulos was considering leaving the plea deal.
“George will take responsibility for some inaccuracies during the interview with the FBI,” Mangiante Papadopoulos said in a statement to ABC News.
[Byron York: In Mueller memo, Papadopoulos emerges as bit player in Trump-Russia affair]
She hopes the judge takes the concerns she’s previously shared about the government setting up her husband into consideration “in order to assess George’s role in this investigation from an objective point of view and, yes, definitely decide for zero jail time.”
Mueller’s prosecutors recommended George Papadopoulos receive jail time this month as they noted that he “caused damage” to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election by preventing authorities from potentially arresting a professor before he left the U.S. Papadopoulos says this professor, identified in media reports as Joseph Mifsud, first told him that some Russians had dirt on Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
George Papadopoulos tried unsuccessfully for months to set up a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russian officials. His sentencing hearing is slated for Sept. 7.
President Trump has called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt” and maintained that his campaign never colluded with the Russians.
