George Demetrios Papadopoulos is an author and former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
46 Facts About George Papadopoulos
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In March 2019, George Papadopoulos released his book, Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump.
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George Papadopoulos ran in the March 2020 primary for the November general election to replace Rep.
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George Papadopoulos was born August 19,1987, at Swedish Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, to Greek immigrants parents originally from Thessaloniki.
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George Papadopoulos's mother, Kate, was born in Greece, but later moved to Worcester, Massachusetts.
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George Papadopoulos grew up in Lincolnwood, Illinois and attended Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, graduating in 2005.
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George Papadopoulos then attended DePaul University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2009.
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George Papadopoulos earned a Master of Science in Security Studies in 2010 at University College London, writing his thesis about "deleterious effects of low governance and state capacity levels in the Middle East" in November 2010.
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George Papadopoulos lived in Europe until March 2016 when he moved back to Chicago.
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George Papadopoulos worked an unpaid intern at the Hudson Institute from 2011 to 2015 specializing in the eastern Mediterranean and later worked as a contract research assistant to a senior fellow at the institute.
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In 2010, following the rupture in relations between Turkey and Israel due to the Mavi Marmara incident, George Papadopoulos became involved in eastern Mediterranean energy development projects and policy focusing upon the relations of Israel, Cyprus, Greece, known as the Energy Triangle.
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In 2014, George Papadopoulos authored op-ed pieces in several Israeli publications.
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In one, published in the Arutz Sheva, George Papadopoulos argued that the US should focus on its "stalwart allies" Israel, Greece, and Cyprus to "contain the newly emergent Russian fleet"; in another, published in Ha'aretz, he contended that Israel should exploit its natural gas resources in partnership with Cyprus and Greece rather than Turkey.
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Investigative reporting conducted by Ha'aretz in 2017 showed that George Papadopoulos co-authored an expert opinion, on behalf of the Hudson Institute that was delivered to the Israeli Energy Ministry on June 20,2015, about a proposed plan to develop the Leviathan offshore gas fields in Israel's territorial waters.
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In September 2015, George Papadopoulos left the Hudson Institute and joined Energy Stream, a London energy consultancy, as an oil and gas consultant for four months before joining Ben Carson's presidential campaign.
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In 2019, George Papadopoulos announced he had joined the board of advisors for the medical cannabis company C3, which manufactures the marijuana pill Idrasil.
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George Papadopoulos sent his resume to the Ben Carson presidential campaign, which hired him as a foreign policy adviser for two-and-a-half months, December 2015 through mid-February 2016.
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George Papadopoulos said that Mifsud was accompanied by a Russian woman, Olga Polonskaya, whom Mifsud falsely identified as the niece of the Russian President.
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On March 31,2016, George Papadopoulos joined candidate Trump as well as Senator Jeff Sessions and other campaign officials for a National Security Meeting at the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC George Papadopoulos averred that he could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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George Papadopoulos sent emails concerning meeting with Putin to at least seven campaign officials.
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On May 10,2016, at London's Kensington Wine Rooms, George Papadopoulos allegedly told the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alexander Downer, who was accompanied by Australian diplomat Erika Thompson, that:.
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George Papadopoulos later said that he had told the Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Kotzias, during a meeting on May 26,2016, that the Russians had Clinton-related emails.
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George Papadopoulos said his "biggest regret" was not immediately reporting Mifsud's comment to US intelligence, and the "stupidest thing I did was actually gossiping about it with foreign diplomats".
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Between March and September 2016, George Papadopoulos made at least six requests for Trump or representatives of his campaign to meet in Russia with Russian politicians.
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On June 19,2016, Sam Clovis, as Trump national campaign co-chairman, encouraged George Papadopoulos to fly to Russia to meet with agents of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
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On July 26, after the hacking of the DNC server had become known, Australian officials told the FBI that in May 2016 George Papadopoulos had bragged to Alexander Downer "that the Trump campaign was aware the Russian government had dirt on Hillary Clinton".
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British intelligence was informed of the FBI FARA case on George Papadopoulos and did not halt the FBI's operation from being conducted on the soil of the United Kingdom where GCHQ could assist with the FBI in the FARA case involving George Papadopoulos but the GCHQ gave no comment about its role according to a May 2,2019, New York Times article.
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On January 20,2017, just hours before Trump was going to be inaugurated, George Papadopoulos and incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus met with Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos.
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Two days later, George Papadopoulos met with the head of Israel's Shomron Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, in Washington, DC George Papadopoulos was reported to have communicated to Dagan the Trump administration's desire to work closely with Israel on the question of Israel's West Bank settlements.
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George Papadopoulos was interviewed by FBI agents on January 27,2017, regarding any Trump campaign connections with Russia.
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On July 27,2017, George Papadopoulos was arrested upon landing at Washington-Dulles International Airport, placed in handcuffs and leg shackles, and put in a prison cell overnight for his arraignment the following day.
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George Papadopoulos was released without bail and subsequently cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation.
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On October 5,2017, George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to making false statements to FBI agents relating to contacts he had with agents of the Russian government while working for the Trump campaign.
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On September 7,2018, George Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in prison, 12 months of supervised release, and 200 hours of community service; he was fined $9,500.
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George Papadopoulos began serving his 14-day sentence on November 26,2018, at FCI Oxford in Oxford, Wisconsin, and was released 12 days later on December 7,2018.
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George Papadopoulos has consistently stated his belief that he was entrapped by people in various government intelligence agencies in order to justify FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign.
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George Papadopoulos fleshed out this belief in his 2019 book Deep State Target.
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George Papadopoulos believes that Downer was recording the conversation with his phone in an obvious manner.
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George Papadopoulos has claimed that this alleged entrapment was indirectly coordinated via the London Centre for International Law Practice, an organization that hired him and were among the first to find out, in 2016, that he was planning to join the Trump campaign.
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George Papadopoulos has pointed to another 2016 meeting, with Stefan Halper, a Cambridge University professor with ties to the FBI and CIA, that he believes was designed to elicit incriminating statements from him.
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George Papadopoulos has said that Halper brought with him an attractive, flirtatious woman, who introduced herself as "Azra Turk", who George Papadopoulos believes was meant to serve as a honeypot to elicit information.
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George Papadopoulos has described him as working for Western intelligence, while others have called this a conspiracy theory and some have even called Mifsud an asset of Russian intelligence.
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George Papadopoulos officially remains missing, although in April 2019 the Italian newspaper Il Foglio stated that he was still alive and hiding out in an apartment in Rome.
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George Papadopoulos's view has been echoed by Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Lindsey Graham.
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In October 2019, Senator Graham, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to the leaders of Britain, Australia and Italy, asserting as fact that both Mifsud and Downer had been directed to contact George Papadopoulos, and asking for their help in continuing the investigation.
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George Papadopoulos married Simona Mangiante, an Italian lawyer who used to work for the European Parliament, in March 2018.