The fiancée of former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos is rejecting claims from President Trump and the White House that her beau was a “low-level volunteer,” and said instead he was in communication with top Trump campaign officials while he was on the team.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians and has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The president and the White House have attempted to downplay his role in the campaign, describing him as working as a “volunteer” with a role that was “extremely limited.”
But Simona Mangiante suggested the Trump campaign was well aware of his actions. She told ABC News that Papadopoulos is “very loyal to his country” and was far from the “coffee boy” campaign adviser Michael Caputo described him as.
She said Papadopoulos “set up meetings with leaders all over the world” for top officials with the Trump campaign. He was also “constantly in touch with high-level officials in the campaign,” she said, including Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, who would go on to become Trump’s national security adviser.
Mangiante said she has seen communications between Papadopoulos and the senior campaign officials, but attorneys told her not to give emails or other evidence to the press.
“First of all, I would love George to learn how to make a coffee, because it’s absolutely out of his skills,” she said. “George is a remarkable young man with incredible experience in the field of energy and oil policies. This experience led him to get into the campaign and to advise the president at only 28 years old.”
“He never took any initiative, as far as I know, [that was] unauthorized,” she added. “… He never took any initiative without the blessing of the campaign.”
Mangiante and Papadopoulos both worked for Joseph Mifsud, an academic. Mifsud has ties to the top officials in the Russian government and allegedly told Papadopoulos he could help get him damaging information on Hillary Clinton and the campaign.
Mangiante said the professor was interested in Papadopoulos “precisely because he was working for Trump.”
Mangiante said she decided to speak out in defense of her fiancé because of the characterizations of his role in the campaign from the Trump administration.
“He was very brave and decent to take responsibility,” she said of his lying to the FBI. “George is very loyal to his country.”
