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ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- As national co-chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, Northwest Iowa's Sam Clovis encouraged a low-level foreign policy adviser to meet with Russian officials to build relations with the Kremlin, according to media reports Monday.

"Make the trip, if it is feasible," Clovis wrote in an August 2016 email to George Papadopoulos.

Papadopoulos, 30, a former researcher at the conservative Hudson Institute, was thrust Monday into the center of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. Papadopoulos, who was secretly arrested in July for lying to federal authorities, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mueller's investigation, according to court papers unsealed Monday.

The campaign supervisor who sent the email to Papadopoulos was not identified in court documents, but the Washington Post and Yahoo News identified the supervisor as Clovis, who now serves as senior White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In his plea filing, Papadopolous admitted that he told Trump and other top campaign national security officials during a March 31, 2016, meeting that he had contact with intermediaries for Russia who said they could set up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.