Attorney General Jeff Sessions misled Congress earlier this year when he denied ever encouraging a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos suggested Sunday.
Papadopoulos told ABC”s “This Week” that he brought up his connection with Joseph Mifsud, a former Malta official with ties to Russia, during a campaign meeting. Mifsud offered to help set up a summit between Trump and Putin prior to the 2016 election while talking with Papadopoulos shortly after he joined the campaign.
When Papadopoulos brought up that offer during the meeting, it was met with a rebuke from conservative officials at groups like the Heritage Foundation and Trump himself. Sessions, however, was “quite enthusiastic,” Papadopoulos said. Sessions, a former GOP senator from Alabama, told House members earlier this year that he never advocated for such a meeting.
“My recollection differs from Jeff Sessions,” Papadopoulos said. “He did not push back.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified under oath in 2017 saying that he “pushed back” against idea of then-candidate Trump meeting with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin.
George Papadopoulos: “My recollection differs from Jeff Sessions'” https://t.co/OuD5wqiWkU pic.twitter.com/GAzeKE4Bzv
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 9, 2018
A former member of the Trump campaign’s foreign policy team, Papadopoulos this week was sentenced to 14 days in federal jail for lying to the FBI. He was the first Trump campaign associate to be sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
