Washington (CNN) A former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI after he lied about his interactions with foreign officials close to the Russian government -- the campaign's clearest connection so far to Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election. 
 
 In court records unsealed on Monday, the FBI said George Papadopoulos "falsely described his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed 'dirt' related to emails" concerning Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Records also describe an email between Trump campaign officials suggesting they were considering acting on Russian invitations to go to Russia. 
 
 In addition, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates surrendered Monday to Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller. 
 
 The charges against top officials from Trump's campaign signals a dramatic new phase of Mueller's wide-ranging investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and members of Trump's team as well as potential obstruction of justice and financial crimes. 
 
 Papadopoulos' guilty plea brings the Mueller probe into actions that occurred during the 2016 campaign. The charges against Manafort and Gates are unrelated to the Trump campaign, though it's possible Mueller could add additional charges. 
 
 Gates, 45, is a longtime business associate of Manafort, 68. The pair worked together since the mid-2000s, and Gates served as Manafort's deputy on the campaign. The two were indicted under seal on Friday, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. 
 
 President Donald Trump distanced himself from Manafort on Monday morning, asking why Clinton wasn't being investigated. 
 
 "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" He soon added: "Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" 
 
 Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 
 
 ....Also, there is NO COLLUSION! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 
 
 He tweeted before Papadopoulos' guilty plea was unsealed. 
 
 Campaign official suggested 'low level' staff should go to Russia 
 
 Papadopoulos lied to FBI agents "about the timing, extent and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials," according to the complaint. Mueller signed a 14-page statement regarding Papadopoulos' offense, which lays out of the facts of the case. 
 
 In May, Papadopoulos sent an email to a "high-ranking campaign official" with the subject line "Request from Russia to meet Mr. Trump." The email said Russian officials were eager to meet with the candidate and had been reaching out. 
 
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 In a footnote, the FBI statement notes that the email suggesting a Russia visit was forwarded from one campaign official to another. "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal," the email read. 
 
 The FBI statement does not explain to whom the campaign officials were concerned about sending signals. 
 
 In the affidavit connected to the case, there is a reference to a July 2016 email Papadopoulos sent to a foreign contact regarding setting up a meeting with what appears to be Manafort (described in the email as his "national chairman"). Papadopoulos writes the meeting has been "approved from our side." 
 
 Mueller's statement also says that Papadopoulos met in March 2016 with a Russian woman -- introduced to him as a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, though she was not -- and he sought to use her connections to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials. 
 
 The statement also says that Papadopoulos falsely claimed he met with an overseas professor before joining the Trump campaign about "the Russians possessing 'dirt' on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of 'thousands of emails.'" 
 
 The professor only took interest in Papadopoulos because of his status on the campaign, according to the statement. 
 
 A former Trump campaign official said Papadopoulos interacted with the campaign "a significant amount" during the 2016 election cycle. 
 
 "He was a foreign policy adviser," said the official, who described Papadopoulos as an adviser who was in contact with the campaign staff via email and not a familiar face around Trump Tower. The official said Papadopoulos exchanged emails "constantly" on foreign policy matters with the Trump team during the campaign. 
 
 Another former senior campaign adviser said of Papadopoulos: "He was a zero. A non-event." 
 
 When asked about Papadopoulos' role in the campaign, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters his role was "extremely limited" and called it a "volunteer position." 
 
 Sanders said the fact that Papadopoulos did not tell the truth "has nothing to do with the campaign" and said he never acted in an official capacity. 
 
 "He reached out and nothing happened beyond that. That shows one, his level of importance in the campaign, and two, shows what little role he had within coordinating anything officially for the campaign." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Indictment against Manafort, Gates unsealed Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Indictment against Manafort, Gates unsealed 01:10 
 
 Manafort, Gates charged with conspiracy against the US 
 
 The indictment against Manafort and Gates contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. 
 
 The two pleaded not guilty before US District Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson on Monday afternoon. Other than stating their names, neither man spoke. Gates was represented by a public defender. 
 
 A federal judge ordered home confinement for Manafort and Gates and set bond at $10 million for Manafort and $5 million for Gates. The defendants will have to check in daily with law enforcement by phone, and they will only be allowed to leave their homes to see their attorneys, to appear at court or for medical and religious necessities. ||||| George Papadopolous, a former foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, admitted to lying to the FBI in January, before Robert Mueller took over the probe. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Former Trump campaign adviser pleads guilty to lying to FBI about Russia contacts Papadopoulos said he had been told as early as April 2016 that Russia had 'thousands of emails' related to Hillary Clinton. 
 
 A foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign secretly pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI and said he had been told as early as April 2016 that Russia had "thousands of emails" related to Democrat Hillary Clinton, court records made public on Monday show. 
 
 George Papadopoulos, 30, entered the guilty plea in a closed courtroom in Washington on Oct. 5, special counsel Robert Mueller’s office announced. Papadopoulos is cooperating with Mueller’s prosecution team, according to a plea agreement released Monday. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The court records offer the clearest evidence yet that a Trump-connected individual knew Russia had obtained thousands of emails related to Clinton, months before the leaks began of exchanges hacked from Democrats' email accounts. Papadopoulos' agreement was also the first guilty plea to be made public in Mueller's long-running probe of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. 
 
 The documents became public on the same day an indictment was unsealed against Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and adviser Rick Gates for money laundering and other charges. But unlike the 12 counts against that duo, the single felony count against Papadopoulos directly relates to 2016 presidential campaign activity. 
 
 An attorney for Papadopoulos, Thomas Breen, declined to comment. “We will have the opportunity to comment on George’s involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date. We look forward to presenting all the facts that led to the events that resulted in this charge," Breen said. 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sought to distance the president from Papadopoulos on Monday, referring to him as a "volunteer" whose role with the Trump campaign had been "extremely limited." At no point was Papadopoulos acting in an official capacity for the campaign, Sanders said, saying he was part of an advisory committee that met only once. 
 
 "We've been saying from day one there's been no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all," Sanders said. "I'm not here to speak on behalf of the, you know, thousands of people who may have volunteered on the campaign." 
 
 The 30-year-old was photographed at a meeting with Trump, and the president listed him among his advisers during a 2016 meeting with The Washington Post's editorial board, characterizing him as an "excellent guy." 
 
 In the agreement, Papadopoulos admitted to lying to the FBI in an initial interview in January — shortly after Trump's inauguration and months before Mueller took over the probe — about contacts with an overseas professor with Russian government contacts and with a representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Papadopoulos acknowledged in the initial interview that the professor claimed the Russian government had "dirt" on Democratic presidential candidate Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." However, Papadopoulos admitted in his plea that he had falsely told the FBI the contacts took place a year or so before he joined the Trump campaign. 
 
 It is unclear exactly which emails Papadopoulos believed Russia had or how they had obtained them. But in July 2016, the website Wikileaks published emails hacked from the accounts of the Democratic National Committee. Trump, then the Republican nominee, subsequently called on Russia to hack and release Clinton's own emails from her time as secretary of state. 
 
 Later in the campaign, hacked emails from Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, were also made public. The intelligence community has said the hacks appeared to be part of a wide-ranging effort by Moscow to meddle in the 2016 election and to hurt Clinton. Mueller's investigation includes whether any Trump campaign aides helped Russia with that effort. 
 
 A statement of facts Papadopoulos agreed to as part of the plea also shows he repeatedly discussed his Russia-related contacts with top campaign officials, including a potential meeting between the then-Republican candidate and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
 
 The encounter never took place, but the court filing notes that an unnamed campaign "supervisor" approved a trip to Moscow by Papadopoulos and another foreign policy adviser. 
 
 The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. 
 
 Previous reports said then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski approved a trip to Russia by Trump adviser Carter Page. Lewandowski and Page were not accused of any crime in the cases unsealed Monday. 
 
 J.D. Gordon, a former Defense Department spokesman who acted as a national security adviser to the Trump campaign along with Jeff Sessions, now Trump's attorney general, said Papadopoulos acted outside the campaign's chain of command. 
 
 “I was surprised to learn today what George Papadopoulos was up to during the campaign. He obviously went to great lengths to go around me and Senator Sessions. Presidential campaigns are like that," Gordon said. "It’s very hard to know what every single person is doing, especially since some folks deliberately go around the chain of command or circumvent it. George Papadopoulos obviously represents an extreme case.” 
 
 Papadopoulos’ stint on the Trump campaign followed a brief stint advising the campaign of Ben Carson, who dropped out of the race after Trump gained steam. 
 
 Carson’s campaign manager Barry Bennett — who went on to join Trump’s campaign after Carson dropped out — said he never interacted with Papadopoulos after leaving Carson’s camp. 
 
 “He came on in December and left after Iowa, so he was on 6 weeks or so. He was 28 then. Very junior. Have no idea how he got on Trump list,” Bennett said in an email. “Did not and would not have suggested it. 
 
 The court document also appears to reference Manafort. In May 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email to a "high-ranking campaign official" saying, "Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss." The official forwarded the note to another campaign aide and said: "Let[']s discuss. We need someone to communicate that OT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." 
 
 In August, the Washington Post reported that Manafort had received a similar email from Papadopoulos and forwarded it to Gates, saying, "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips." 
 
 Shortly after Papadopoulos’ second round of questioning by the FBI in February, he deactivated his Facebook account, ceased using his cell phone number and switched to a new one, according to the factual statement he admitted to in his guilty plea. 
 
 The former campaign adviser was arrested July 27 at Dulles airport outside Washington as he arrived on a flight from Munich, court records show. The day after Papadopoulos' arrest, he appeared in court in Alexandria, Va., and was released on his own recognizance after prosecutors did not seek his detention. 
 
 While the initial complaint in the case charged Papadopoulos with both making false statements and obstruction of justice, that charge was dropped when the plea deal was filed early last month. 
 
 The felony false statements charge carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison, but sentences are typically much shorter than that, especially when a defendant pleads guilty and cooperates with prosecutors. 
 
 Papadopoulos' guilty plea was unsealed Monday morning just as Trump took to Twitter to downplay the significance of the Manafort and Gates charges and to note that they did not appear to relate to the campaign. 
 
 "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Trump asked, adding: "Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" 
 
 The president did not immediately address the Papadopoulos plea, which has a much stronger nexus to the 2016 Trump campaign. 
 
 Kyle Cheney, Darren Samuelsohn, Josh Meyer and Josh Dawsey contributed to this report. ||||| LinkedIn 
 
 An early foreign-policy adviser and aide to President Donald Trump's campaign team secretly pleaded guilty earlier this month to making false statements to the FBI about the nature and extent of his contacts with foreign nationals who he knew had ties to senior Russian government officials. 
 
 George Papadopoulos, 30, was a foreign-policy adviser to Trump's campaign in early 2016. He sent at least six emails to top Trump advisers during the campaign offering to set up meetings with Russian officials, The Washington Post reported in August. The first of those emails was sent in March 2016 with the subject line "Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin." 
 
 The newly unsealed charge, filed October 3 by the special counsel Robert Mueller's office, said that on January 27 Papadopoulos lied to FBI agents about "the timing, extent, and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials." 
 
 Papadopoulos told the FBI that his outreach to the Russia-linked foreign nationals occurred before he joined the campaign, the FBI document said. But his first interaction with an "overseas professor" with ties to high-level Russian officials occurred on March 14, 2016, weeks after he joined the campaign. That professor told Papadopoulos just over a month later that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton that came in the form of "thousands of emails," according to the FBI document. 
 
 Papadopoulos further told the FBI that he met with a Russian woman who claimed to be a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin — Papadopoulos described her as Putin's "niece" in one email — before he joined the campaign, but he actually met her on March 24, according to the special counsel's office. 
 
 "He believed she had connections to Russian government officials; and he sought to use her Russian connections over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials," the filing says. 
 
 linkedin/gpapadopoulos7 
 
 The professor introduced Papadopoulos via email to a person in Moscow with ties to Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 18, according to the filing. They had multiple conversations over the next few weeks to lay the groundwork for a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials. 
 
 Papadopoulos emailed then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in April saying he had received "a lot of calls over the past month" about how "Putin wants to host the Trump team when the time is right," according to The Post. He emailed Lewandowski and another campaign adviser, Sam Clovis, on May 4 to ask again about setting up a meeting. 
 
 "There are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen," Clovis replied. 
 
 Two months later, on July 14, 2016, Papadopoulos emailed one of the foreign contacts and indicated a meeting had "been approved from our side." 
 
 The meeting, Papadopoulos wrote, would be "for August or September in the UK (London) with me and my national chairman, and maybe one other foreign policy adviser and you, members of president putin's office and the mfa to hold a day of consultations and to meet one another." 
 
 Papadopoulos was arrested on July 27 of this year upon his arrival to Dulles airport in Washington, DC, and met with government agents several times thereafter. He pleaded guilty on October 5 and now appears to be a cooperating witness in Mueller's investigation. 
 
 "The Papodopolous guilty plea seems very significant," said William Yeomans, a former deputy assistant attorney general who spent 26 years at the Justice Department. 
 
 "As I understand it, he lied about his contact — while he was with the campaign — with a professor with ties to the Russian government. That brings campaign collusion into play. It's early. There will undoubtedly be more to come." 
 
 Read the full statement of the offense against Papadopoulos below: ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201710/1411/1155968404_5629843627001_5629822036001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump campaign aides charged in Mueller's Russia probe Paul Manafort and Rick Gates have been charged with money laundering, while ex-adviser George Papadopoulos cut a plea deal for lying about Russia-linked contacts. 
 
 Special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian election interference has dramatically escalated, with authorities indicting former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and unsealing a plea deal with a foreign policy adviser who lied about meeting with Russia-linked contacts. 
 
 The moves are the first official public actions by Mueller, and while they do not directly implicate the president, they show how the special counsel is accelerating his sprawling probe into possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and the Kremlin. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Authorities on Monday morning unsealed an indictment against Manafort and fellow campaign official Rick Gates that charged the men with money laundering, making false statements and other counts. The two former aides pleaded not guilty in federal court on Monday afternoon. Prosecutors asked that bond be set at $10 million for Manafort and $5 million for Gates but said both may be detained at home until they can post bail. 
 
 Kevin Downing, an attorney for Manafort, called the charges against his client "ridiculous" while also defending the overall Trump campaign. 
 
 "I think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct. There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government," Downing told reporters after the court appearance. 
 
 While both Manafort and Gates had top roles in the Trump campaign, the criminal charges do not discuss any actions clearly related to the presidential race, although the indictment notes that a Ukrainian political party the men worked for had a pro-Russia outlook. 
 
 The charges, however, could be used to apply pressure on the two former officials to more fully cooperate in Mueller’s larger investigation. 
 
 The more revealing details came in a 14-page document showing that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, cut a secret plea deal earlier this month for lying to the FBI about the campaign’s outreach to Russia-related officials. 
 
 The document describes a series of conversations and meetings with contacts whom he understood to have connections to the Kremlin about obtaining “dirt” on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and setting up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
 
 Papadopoulos became a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign in March 2016 and went on to cultivate relationships with two individuals apparently connected to Russia, labeled in the document only as “the Professor” and the “Female Russian National.” Papadopoulos also kept campaign officials appraised of his contacts and efforts including, on at least one occasion, at a meeting that Trump himself attended. 
 
 “The Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS, as defendant PAPADOPOULOS later described to the FBI, that ‘They [the Russians] have dirt on her’; ‘the Russians had emails of Clinton’; ‘they have thousands of emails.’” 
 
 Papadopoulos was arrested in July. 
 
 The revelations in the plea deal appear to undercut Trump’s repeated claims that the sprawling probe is nothing more than a “witch hunt” and that his campaign had no contacts with Russian officials. 
 
 Trump on Monday morning downplayed the charges against Manafort and Gates in two tweets that came before the Papadopoulos news emerged. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" 
 
 He added, "....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!” 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also sought to downplay the news during the daily press briefing, dismissing Papadopoulos as a minor “campaign volunteer” and echoing the president’s line that Manafort and Gates were indicted for activity that occurred before the campaign. 
 
 “Today’s announcement has nothing to do with the president, nothing to do with the president’s campaign or campaign activity,” Sanders said. 
 
 She dismissed Papadopoulos’ role as “extremely limited” and a “volunteer position” and said the advisory council that he sat on met only once. She said Trump did not remember specifics about the March 2016 meeting he attended with Papadopoulos. 
 
 She added that Trump had “no intention” of firing Mueller and that she expected the investigation to “conclude soon.” 
 
 Manafort and Gates were indicted on 12 counts, according to a 31-page indictment unsealed on Monday morning, including money laundering, operating as unregistered foreign agents of the government of Ukraine, failing to disclose overseas bank accounts and making false statements to federal authorities. 
 
 The indictment alleges that the men set up a series of offshore companies in order to avoid taxes on their overseas lobbying work and defrauded banks in order to win loans. 
 
 The indictment of two figures central to Trump’s 2016 election and the plea deal of a third mark the most significant step yet in an investigation that has dogged Trump’s presidency, even as he and other officials have tried to redirect attention on to Clinton. The implications for Trump’s fledgling policy agenda are potentially catastrophic, as the cloud of Russia allegations only darkens, despite the White House’s insistence that nothing will ultimately come of the federal and congressional probes. 
 
 Mueller was selected to dig into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, including the hacks and release of Democrats’ emails, which intelligence agencies have concluded were designed to boost Trump’s campaign. Mueller, who was named after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May, is also tasked with determining whether any Trump associates colluded with Moscow in that effort. But the special counsel also has wide latitude to pursue any other wrongdoing he finds during his investigation. 
 
 Even before the charges were unsealed on Monday morning, White House officials moved to put distance between Trump and his former campaign chairman. 
 
 “Whatever happens today with the Mueller investigation, we don't even know that it has anything to do with the campaign, what happens today,” presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News earlier on Monday morning. 
 
 This follows previous attempts by the White House to create distance between itself and Manafort. Trump said in August that Manafort had served on his campaign for a “very short period of time.” And at a briefing in March, then-press secretary Sean Spicer described Manafort as having “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” during the campaign. 
 
 Manafort served on the campaign from March through August 2016, and was campaign chairman from May until he resigned on Aug. 19. 
 
 He was present for events that appear critical to the investigation into possible collusion, including a meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who promised damaging information on Clinton. That meeting was brokered with the help of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. 
 
 Manafort and Gates were arraigned Monday by U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson. 
 
 After Robinson took the bench, Downing, Manafort’s lawyer, and David Bos, a public defender who stood in to represent Gates entered not guilty pleas on behalf of both defendants. 
 
 Prosecutor Greg Andres spoke for Mueller’s office at the hearing, saying that the government considers both men a flight risk but would not object to their release to home confinement. 
 
 “Our basis for arguing risk of flight has to do with the nature of the charges and the seriousness,” Andres said. “Mr. Manafort’s significant ties abroad, we believe, constitute a risk of flight. ... Mr. Gates as well has significant ties abroad over time.” 
 
 Both men were ordered to turn in their passports and not to apply for any others. Downing said Manafort had surrendered his passport to the FBI on Sunday. 
 
 The hearing stretched to nearly an hour and 15 minutes, including a long break as arrangements were made for Gates’ home detention in Richmond, Virginia. 
 
 Asked by Robinson whether he understood he was required to surrender his passport, Manafort said, “I do.” His responses grew quieter as the magistrate judge detailed other conditions, like daily check-ins by phone with pretrial services. He and Gates may leave their homes only to meet their lawyers, for court dates, for medical emergencies and for religious observances. 
 
 The public gallery was packed for the arraignment, although a row typically reserved for families and friends of the defense was empty. 
 
 Manafort and Gates are due back in court on Thursday for their first hearing before the district court judge assigned to any trial in the case, Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama. 
 
 Manafort, a longtime GOP operative, had been under Justice Department investigation since early 2014 — long before Trump announced his presidential campaign — over his ties to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who abandoned office in February 2014 and fled to Russia amid political protests and allegations of government corruption. 
 
 The charges focused on Manafort and Gates’ lobbying work on behalf of the Ukrainian government and Yanukovych from 2006 to 2015. 
 
 The work generated tens of millions of dollars, which was then laundered through “scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts,” according to the indictment. The charges allege both tax avoidance and concealment of their work as foreign agents. Manafort laundered more than $18 million, according to the indictment. 
 
 The scrutiny of Manafort’s record took on new relevance after investigators began looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election. 
 
 Gates joined the Trump campaign in the spring of 2016 along with Manafort, his longtime lobbying partner, to spearhead GOP delegate-counting efforts and avoid an internal party revolt at the Republican National Convention that could have cost Trump the nomination. 
 
 Gates, however, remained in Trump’s chaotic orbit during the general election campaign, working on joint fundraising and massaging internal party dynamics from the Republican National Committee even following Manafort's ouster as head of the campaign in August, after he came under fire amid reports about his lobbying work for a pro-Russia party in Ukraine. 
 
 Gates later connected with Trump confidant Thomas Barrack at an election night party, according to a New York Times report, and was hired to help run the presidential inaugural committee. 
 
 After the election, Gates joined a half-dozen Trump campaign alumni — including digital director Brad Parscale and Nick Ayers, who has since become Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff — at America First Policies, an outside group dedicated to promoting the president’s agenda. 
 
 Gates left the group in March. CNN reported the departure was due to Gates’ ties to Manafort, who faced increasing scrutiny over his ties to Russia as the extent of Moscow’s election-meddling became clear. 
 
 Gates had not been contacted by the special counsel's office, according to one associate with close ties to him, and learned of the looming charges against him in the 24 hours before the news became public. 
 
 In the past week, he had begun looking for new clients and seemed "perfectly normal," according to this person, who spoke to him. He had continued to work for Barrack. 
 
 Gates sent a note early Monday morning to friends and family apologizing for delivering bad news but proclaiming his innocence. In the note, he said he was surprised by the charges, according to a person who reviewed the note. 
 
 Some Republicans took the opportunity on Monday to reaffirm their support for the work of Mueller, with some lawmakers fearing that Trump may move to oust the special counsel. 
 
 “Months ago I & many other Republicans vowed to support Mueller investigation & allow it to work its way through process to get the facts,” tweeted Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.). “In light of today’s indictments we must continue to support and allow the integrity of the process to work.” 
 
 Democrats used the indictments as an opportunity to call for expanded probes into the Russian meddling. 
 
 “Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russia’s meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections.” 
 
 Other Democrats sought to link the indictment to the broader question of White House coziness with Russia. 
 
 “Paul Manafort and Rick Gates ran Trump’s campaign and continued to be a part of his inner circle after Election Day,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement. “This underscores the seriousness of the investigation into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. It’s time for Republicans to commit to protecting this investigation and preserving the rule of law.” 
 
 The Papadopoulos plea could prove far more damning for the White House in the near term than the indictments. Papadopoulos’ overtures to Russians were first reported by The Washington Post in August, but that report downplayed the extent of his efforts, and the extent to which he kept senior campaign officials informed. 
 
 “It is in the best interest of our client, George Papadopoulos, that we refrain from commenting on George’s case,” Papadopoulos’ defense attorney, Thomas Breen, said in a short statement. “We will have the opportunity to comment on George’s involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date. We look forward to presenting all the facts that led to the events that resulted in this charge.” 
 
 Papadopoulos was informed as early as April 2016 that the Russians had “dirt” on Clinton and “thousands of emails.” In July, Trump would call on Russia to find the emails missing from Clinton’s server, but he said that the comment was meant in jest. 
 
 Josh Dawsey, Michael Crowley, Cristiano Lima, Louis Nelson, Nolan D. McCaskill and Kyle Cheney contributed to this report. ||||| Candidate Donald Trump “nodded with approval” when a former campaign adviser suggested a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin in 2016, according to a court filing by lawyers seeking a lighter sentence for the adviser, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts during the campaign. 
 
 The description of the meeting with Trump and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions was revealed Friday in the filing, which argued that George Papadopoulos should be spared jail time because his lies did not hinder the special counsel’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. 
 
 In the filing, the attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss to put Papadopoulos on probation at his sentencing, which is set for Friday. They said claims that his falsehoods impeded prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III were “speculative and contrary to the evidence.” 
 
 The attorneys wrote that Papadopoulos’s “motives for lying to the FBI were wrongheaded indeed but far from the sinister spin the Government suggests. Caught off-guard by an impromptu interrogation, Mr. Papadopoulos misled investigators to save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master” — an apparent reference to Trump. 
 
 [American political consultant admits foreign money was funneled to Trump inaugural] 
 
 Papadopoulos, 31, pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about key details of his conversations with a London-based professor who had told him the Russians held dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. 
 
 
 
 In a photo from President Trump's Twitter account posted on March 31, 2016, George Papadopoulos, third from left, sits with the then-candidate and others at what was labeled a national security meeting in Washington. (President Trump’s Twitter account/AP/AP) 
 
 Contesting prosecutors’ contention that Papadopoulos has provided little cooperation to the probe, lawyers argued that he has volunteered information in an effort to help — such as the description of a March 31, 2016, meeting he attended with Trump and Sessions in which Papadopoulos said soon after introducing himself that he could get Trump a meeting with Putin. 
 
 For the first time, the lawyers revealed that the young adviser felt encouraged by Trump to continue those efforts, writing in the court filing that “Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions, who appeared to also like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it.” 
 
 That account conflicts with what Sessions, now attorney general, testified before Congress. Sessions has given shifting accounts of his contacts with Russia during the 2016 race. He has also changed his story about the March 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Papadopoulos and Trump. 
 
 At his confirmation hearing in January 2017, Sessions was asked whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had communicated with Russia. He said that he was “not aware of any of those activities” and that he “did not have communications with the Russians.” The Washington Post then reported that Sessions had spoken twice to the Russian ambassador at the time, Sergey Kislyak. 
 
 [Mueller prosecutors seek up to six months in prison for George Papadopoulos in Russia probe] 
 
 In October 2017, Sessions testified to Congress that he had met with Kislyak in his capacity as a senator, not as a Trump campaign surrogate. He was asked whether surrogates for the Trump campaign “had communications with the Russians.” 
 
 “I did not, and I’m not aware of anyone else that did, and I don’t believe it happened,” he said. 
 
 Details then surfaced about the March 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. “I had no recollection of this meeting until I saw these news reports,” Sessions told the House Judiciary Committee in November. He said he remembered offering “pushback” when Papadopoulos raised the idea, suggesting he had shut down the adviser’s proposal for a Trump-Putin meeting. 
 
 J.D. Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman and Trump adviser who said he was at the meeting, also recalled that Sessions “shut him down” when Papadopoulos offered to introduce Trump to Putin. 
 
 A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment. 
 
 Papadopoulos’s plea was one of the first major developments in the special counsel’s investigation that has produced the indictments or convictions of 32 people, including four Trump associates. 
 
 On Friday, Republican lobbyist W. Samuel Patten also pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to failing to register as a foreign lobbyist in a case that began as a referral from Mueller’s office. 
 
 Papadopoulos’s sentencing will mark the close of the case that launched the FBI investigation of possible Trump campaign connections with Russia. Officials have said the FBI opened a counter­intelligence investigation in summer 2016, after an Australian diplomat reported to American counterparts that Papadopoulos had told him over drinks in May 2016 that the Russians held damning information about Clinton. 
 
 Earlier in August, Mueller’s office said jail time was appropriate for Papadopoulos, arguing he had lied repeatedly to investigators and had not provided substantial cooperation since pleading guilty. They did not recommend a sentence. Federal sentencing guidelines call for Papadopoulos to face a maximum of six months in jail. 
 
 In the filing, Papadopoulos’s lawyers also asserted for the first time that the adviser detailed for prosecutors a discussion he had in late May 2016 with the foreign minister of Greece, where he told the minister about the claim that the Russians held dirt on Clinton. The meeting took place days before Putin traveled to Greece and met with officials there, Papadopoulos’s lawyers wrote. 
 
 [Secret FBI source for Russia investigation met with three Trump advisers during campaign] 
 
 In a 16-page court filing, Papadopoulos’s lawyers said that despite the gravity of his offense, “he was just a small part of a large-scale investigation,” in over his head and “giddy” at the boost to his career from joining Trump’s team. 
 
 “To say George was out of his depth would be a gross understatement. Despite being a young energy policy guru, he had no experience in dealing with Russian policy or its officials,” wrote attorneys Robert W. Stanley, Thomas M. Breen and Todd S. Pugh. They added the government “has not shown counsel nor the Court any evidence tending to show its investigation was actually hindered.” 
 
 In recent weeks, Papadopoulos’s wife, Simona, had said in interviews that Papadopoulos had grown suspicious about the FBI’s treatment of him during the course of its investigation and was considering asking a judge to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea and fight the charges. 
 
 Papadopoulos had appeared to support the idea when he tweeted last week, “Been a hell of a year. Decisions.” 
 
 His mother, Kiki, tweeted, “Looks like a trial is coming!” 
 
 Simona Papadopoulos told The Washington Post she believed the FBI had worked to entrap her husband during its investigation, including by dispatching an American professor working in Cambridge, England, to gather intelligence from him during the campaign. 
 
 She said she and her husband believe he was approached by other FBI informants as well and said they doubted a claim by the special counsel’s office that Papadopoulos’s lies impeded its investigation. She said withdrawing the plea would have required the FBI to provide more information about the investigation. 
 
 “Everything has to be on the table and transparent and argued and counterargued,” she said. 
 
 However, she said, Papadopoulos ultimately decided he wanted to “take responsibility for being less than candid” with the FBI. 
 
 Also, she said, a legal defense fund established by the couple has not raised enough money to finance what would probably have been a lengthy legal battle, had Papadopoulos sought to withdraw his guilty plea. 
 
 Papadopoulos would have needed the judge’s permission to exit the plea deal, which some legal experts have said was unlikely, given that he had entered his guilty plea voluntarily and had affirmed in court that he understood the consequences. 
 
 Had the judge signed off, the special counsel’s office could have sought to refile the case against him, charging him with additional felony counts that would have carried significantly more prison time. 
 
 “The downside risks far outweigh any upside benefit he could get,” said Michael Dry, a former federal prosecutor who now works at the firm Vinson & Elkins. 
 
 Salvador Rizzo contributed to this story.
– The unsealed indictment against Paul Manafort made big headlines on Monday, but another development in the Robert Mueller investigation might have more troubling implications for President Trump. That's because while the Manafort charges have no connection to the Trump campaign, this one does, notes Politico. Former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, 30, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his outreach to a Russian national who promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, reports CNBC. Papadopoulos initially told the FBI that this contact was a "nothing," but he has since acknowledged that he knew the professor had "substantial connections to Russian government officials," per the New York Times. The case is outlined in court documents here. Papadopoulos also told the FBI that his contact with the professor took place before he joined the Trump campaign, when, in fact, Papadopoulos met with the professor days after becoming an adviser, reports the Guardian. The Times calls his guilty plea, which occurred earlier this month, "the most explicit evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government's meddling in last year's election." Similarly, Papadopoulos met with a woman he believed to be related to Vladimir Putin after joining the campaign, even though he told the FBI the contact occurred beforehand, reports Business Insider. "He believed she had connections to Russian government officials; and he sought to use her Russian connections over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials," per the court filing.