Was Papadopoulos a ‘Low-Level Volunteer’?
A day after the FBI announced that George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, had pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, the president tweeted: “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar.”
In a press briefing on Oct. 30, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was similarly dismissive, calling Papadopoulos’ role in the campaign “extremely limited.” Ten times, Sanders noted that Papadopoulos was a volunteer on the campaign, and that he served on an advisory council that only met once.
Asked about his activities, Sanders said she could not “speak on behalf of the thousands of people that may have volunteered on the campaign.”
Those descriptions might conjure images of someone whose role amounted to little more than putting up lawn signs and licking envelopes, but there was more to Papadopoulos’ position than that.
Court documents released on Oct. 30 indicate that Papadopoulos, as a foreign policy adviser,
