George Papadopoulos meeting with UK during Trump campaign revealed
Source: BBC
George Papadopoulos meeting with UK during Trump campaign revealed
Anthony Zurcher
8 November 2017
From the section US & Canada
Dismissed by the White House as a "low-level volunteer", more about the true status of adviser George Papadopoulos seems to emerge by the day. The Trump campaign foreign policy aide's contacts with Russians have already got him in trouble. He has admitted lying to the FBI about them. But it is now revealed he also met a British Foreign Office official, two months before the US presidential election, for a "working level" meeting.
"As you would expect in the run up to an election we seek to build links with figures in both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns," a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman told the BBC, confirming the meeting. "This type of outreach is normal diplomatic business." While such meetings may be routine diplomacy, the fact that Papadopoulos was presenting himself to the government of one of the US's closest allies as a representative of the Trump campaign undercuts the White House's recent assertion that Papadopoulos was a campaign volunteer of little importance.
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We don't know whether Papadopoulos was operating in an official capacity for the Trump campaign or simply presenting himself that way without prior approval. Given that through much of 2016 the Trump team operated on a shoestring budget, with little in the way of traditional campaign hierarchy or structure, the latter is entirely possible. When it comes down to it, however, the British government apparently treated him with the type of deference due to a top-level political adviser.
Word of the Papadopoulos sit-down in London was first reported by Scott Stedman, a California university student, in a post on the website Medium. He writes that the Trump adviser met "an unidentified, high-ranking member of the UK's department that handles foreign affairs".
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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41892373
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