CNN reports that the federal authorities had cornered the man they suspected could be part of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and they might have been more successful in their investigation in early 2017, if it had not been for George Papadopoulos, the special counsel alleged on Friday.
Special counsel prosecutors are asking the judges to sentence George Papadopoulos to up to six months in prison for lying to the FBI in January 2017 about his contact in London with Maltese Joseph Mifsud.
Mifsud had told Papadopoulos the Russians had dirt on Clinton.
The Federal authorities then found Mifsud in Washington two weeks later but allowed him to leave the country. Papadopoulos ‘lies’ undermined investigators’ ability to challenge Mifsud or detain him or arrest him while still in the US.
Mifsud has not returned to the US since February 2017 and has not been charged with a crime. Papadopoulos lied about the significance of the meetings with Mifsud in an attempt to minimize both his own role and the extent of the campaign’s knowledge of the contacts.
(CNN)
