Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos will adhere to his plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, his wife told ABC News on Wednesday.
“George will take responsibility for some inaccuracies during the interview with the FBI,” Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos said in a statement to the news outlet, adding that she hopes the judge won’t send her husband to jail at his sentencing Sept. 7.
The decision puts to rest some indecision about his stance — including his wife’s assertion earlier this month that Papadopoulos was considering backing away from the deal that led to his guilty plea to lying to the FBI.
She’d been critical of what she believed was a set-up of her husband by the government — and told ABC News she and her husband were contemplating fighting the charges based on that belief.
Now, she told the news outlet, she hopes “the judge will take into account” those concerns “in order to assess George’s role in this investigation from an objective point of view and, yes, definitely decide for zero jail time.”
Papadopoulos admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts during the campaign with a professor who, prosecutors alleged in court filings, had “substantial connections to Russian government officials.”
As part of his plea agreement, Papadopoulos agreed to cooperate with Mueller in his probe into Russian meddling during the 2016 campaign.
Mueller has recommended that Papadopoulos be sentenced to zero to six months in prison and face a fine of $9,500.
"The defendant knew the questions he was asked by the FBI were important, and he knew his answers were false at the time he gave them. His lies negatively affected the FBI’s Russia investigation, and prevented the FBI from effectively identifying and confronting witnesses in a timely fashion," the recommendation stated, according to The Hill.
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