Ex-Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos jailed for lying in FBI's Russia inquiry
George Papadopoulos has been jailed for 14 days for lying to the FBI which is investigating Russia's election interference.
Friday 7 September 2018 23:04, UK
A former campaign aide to Donald Trump has been jailed for 14 days after he admitted lying to the FBI during the investigation into possible collusion with Moscow.
George Papadopoulos was the first to plead guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
He was also the first to detail a member of the Trump campaign having knowledge of the Russian efforts to meddle while it was going on.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about the timing and significance of his contacts with the Russians. He is the first Trump campaign affiliate to be sentenced as part of the Mueller probe.
US district judge Randolph Moss said he "lied in an investigation that was important to national security".
He was also given a £7,300 ($9,500) fine and community service, and will spend a year on parole.
Prosecutors for Mr Mueller said the ex-aide lied to agents to "minimise both his own role as a witness and the extent of the campaign's knowledge of his contacts".
But it was his lies that set off the federal inqury into Moscow collusion.
One of the contacts he lied about was Professor Joseph Mifsud, based in London, who told him the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails".
Prosecutors said the lies he told in interviews with FBI agents "undermined investigators' ability to challenge the professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States".
The former campaign aide only came clean when he was confronted with his own emails, texts and other evidence.
Russia has continually denied allegations of interfering in the 2016 election.
Mr Trump denies collusion.
Prosecutors had pushed for a six-month jail sentence, but his defence lawyers asked he be granted probation.
Papadopoulos told the judge he was a good man who had made a "dreadful mistake".
He said: "I hope to have a second chance to redeem myself."
Two months after his guilty plea, Papadopoulos was due to have a follow-up interview with the FBI, but the bureau cancelled it when they found out he and his wife had been conducting media interviews.
Papadopoulos was pictured in March 2016 sitting with Mr Trump and Jeff Sessions, who was then a campaign adviser, at a meeting in which he proposed Mr Trump should meet Vladimir Putin.
Mr Sessions, who went on to become Attorney General, claimed he pushed back against the proposal, but a memo filed by Papadopoulos' lawyers contradicts this, saying both he and the candidate were in favour.