Oh, wow, Mueller bags one serious criminal. Fourteen whole days in the slammer. My. So for at least 2 weeks I am going to feel a lot safer.
The second major part of this story is why Papadopoulos's lawyer says he did it. It's shocking.
ZitatThe man whose boozy conversation with a diplomat may have launched the federal government's investigation into Russian election interference was sentenced Friday to 14 days in jail and one year of supervised release for lying to the FBI.
The defendant, George Papadopoulos, a one-time up-and-comer from Chicago who served as a foreign policy adviser on President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, pleaded guilty last October to making a materially false statement when the FBI interviewed him in January 2017.
In arguing for probation for his client, Papadopoulos attorney Thomas Breen said, "The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever could."
That was because, in January 2017, shortly before Papadopoulos was interviewed by, and lied to, the FBI, Trump proclaimed that the Russia investigation was a "witch hunt" and "fake news," Breen told the court. Green argued that those comments influenced Papadopoulos's decision to lie to the FBI.
At another point, Breen talked about going to the FBI field office in Chicago in February 2017 and seeing a picture of Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the wall.