The transcript of George Papadopoulos’ private testimony to a joint congressional task force investigating potential bias in the Justice Department and the FBI was released Tuesday.
Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the ranking member of the committee, took to the House floor to put the 239-page transcript in the record.
“Over the past few weeks, I have released the transcripts of Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr, and Lisa Page from the Judiciary Committee’s investigation into apparent wrongdoing at the FBI and DOJ,” Collins said. “I have said I would make additional transcripts from the investigation public, and I am here today to keep that promise … so the American people can review the transcript of George Papadopoulos. The American people deserve to know the origins of the probe against President Trump’s campaign.”
As part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI related to meetings and conversations with Russian officials in 2016 and in December spent nearly two weeks in prison.
The transcript of his October interview with the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees shows Papadopoulos explained how he was swept up in the DOJ and FBI investigation into then-candidate Trump. “I guess blissfully, ignorant, of, you know, like I said, the U.S.-Russia relationship and kind of maybe a little too ambitious at the time,” Papadopoulos said about his foreign contacts.
“I was a complete wannabe when it came to the U.S.-Russia relationship,” he added.
Papadopoulos said he met Joseph Mifsud, alleged to have connections to high-ranking Russian officials, around March 14, 2016, telling the committee that his position on Trump’s campaign wasn’t yet public. “He took a liking to me immediately once he knew that I would be working on the Trump campaign,” Papadopoulos said of Mifsud.
Trump announced that Papadopoulos was on his foreign policy advisory board on March 21, 2016, saying: “He’s an oil and energy consultant. Excellent guy.” On March 24, 2016, Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to Olga Polonskaya — a woman who Papadopoulos said Mifsud told him was a family member of a “high level Russian diplomat” and perhaps “Putin’s niece or the Russian President’s niece.”
Papadopoulos joined Trump and other new members of Trump’s foreign policy team for a “National Security Meeting” held at the Trump Hotel on March 31, 2016. Papadopoulos said this is the one and only time that he met Trump. He told the committee: “I was never paid on the Trump campaign.”
In describing another meetings with Mifsud, Papadopoulos said Mifsud told him that he would introduce him to Russia’s ambassador to United Kingdom, but when Papdopoulos showed up, it was a different person.
“By the way, there’s this misunderstanding that I actually met that person, because I lied to the campaign about it, where I told them I just met the Russian ambassador, my good friend, Mifsud, all these — I never met the Russian ambassador, just to make that completely clear,” Papadopoulos said.
According to Papadopolous, Mifsud told him that the Russians had obtained the Hillary Clinton emails, but Papadopolous insisted to the committee that he didn’t hear anything about them coming from the Democratic National Committee nor being obtained by WikiLeaks. “He tells me that the Russians have thousands of Hillary Clinton emails,” he said. “I never heard the word DNC … I never heard the words DNC, [Clinton campaign chairman John] Podesta, anything like that … My impression when he told me this information at the time was he is validating rumors. Because I didn’t feel that I heard something so different, like Democratic National Committee emails, WikiLeaks, I didn’t hear anything like that.”
Papadopolous said of Mifsud: “He had failed to introduce me to anyone of substance in the Russian government. So he failed to do that, but now all of a sudden he has the keys to the kingdom about a massive potential conspiracy that Russia is involved in.”
Papadopolous also spoke about subsequent meetings he’d had with Christian Canter of the Israeli Embassy, Canter’s “girlfriend” Erica Thompson (who he now believes to be “Australian intelligence officer”), and eventually Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, who was introduced to him by Thompson. Papadopoulos claimed to the committee he didn’t provide Downer with information concerning Russia or anything else.
On May 10, 2016, while at Kensington Wine Rooms in London, Papadopolous allegedly told Downer that Russia was in possession of Clinton emails. Downer passed this information along to the U.S. government, and it is alleged that this meeting is what led to the launch of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign in July 2016.
“To this day, I don’t remember actually ever sharing that information with this person that I guess triggered this whole investigation. But like I said, I remember many other facets of that meeting,” Papadopolous told the committee.
