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 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. Criminal Information 
 
 Plea Agreement 
 
 Statement of the Offense 
 
 U.S. v. George Papadopoulos (1:17-cr-182, District of Columbia) 
 
 George Papadopoulos, of Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, 2017, to making false statements to FBI agents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. On Aug. 21, 2018, a federal jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts: counts 1-5, subscribing to a false individual income tax return for tax years 2010-2014; count 12, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts for year 2012; count 25, bank fraud; and count 27, bank fraud. 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. According to the documents, shortly after Papadopoulos learned he would become a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, he met in March 2016 with a Russian professor who claimed to have "dirt" on Clinton. 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. 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.
– 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.