George Papadopoulos, the former Trump adviser who was arrested in July by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for lying to the FBI, had a much more prominent and important role on the Trump team than the White House has portrayed. Evidence exists that George Papadopoulos had a direct line to Donald Trump as late as December, 2016. This implies that the White House has not only lied about the high-level role that Papadopoulos had, but that the President himself is wildly misreporting the facts when he stated that “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George”.

Beginning in the Spring of 2016, Papadopoulos had a series of meetings with the most senior levels of the Greek political world. To this day unreported by US media, Papadopoulos had a one-on-one meeting with the President of Greece, Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

Papadopoulos, left, with the Greek President, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, right.

The importance of this meeting, and this photograph, cannot be overstated. The Trump team has tried to cast Papadopoulos as a “coffee boy”, someone who did little for the Trump campaign and had no real role. The President of Greece is reported to have “received Papadopoulos as a person who would potentially help Greece, if Trump was elected.” The role Papadopoulos was playing for the campaign was not a coffee boy, it was as a senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican nominee. The discussion was held in the Presidential Mansion in Athens, Greece. Papadapoulos also met with Defense Minister Panos Kammenos.

In November, 2016, after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the election, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos tweeted his congratulations, underscoring how important of a role Papadopoulos plays for Greece-US relations.

Later that year, in December, Papadopoulos went back to Greece as a representative of the President-elect Donald Trump and had two highly significant meetings. First, he met with the Greek Defense Minister, as seen in the picture below.

Papadopoulos, left, and Kammenos, right.

According to local Greek news, “On December 4, speaking to local Greek TV stations in Northern Greece, Papadopoulos was reluctant to discuss details of the US policy towards Greece, Turkey and the Balkans saying that “as a representative of the president-elect” he was not yet in position to discuss policy details.” Star Nothern Greece referred to Papadopoulos as “one of the closest aides to [the] newly elected President Trump.” This crucial interview again discredits the White House. Papadopoulos was a Trump adviser representing the country in a foreign country. He seemed to indicate that he was privy to the contents of the phone call between President-elect Trump and the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, saying that it went “very well”.

Secondly, Papadopoulos met with Ieronymos II, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. The Archbishop asked Mr. Papadopoulos to “convey his wishes to the new President of the United States for a successful term”, suggesting that Papadopoulos had a direct line of communication with Donald Trump.

Archbishop Ieronymos II, left, and Papadopoulos, right.

On January 20, Inauguration day, Panos Kammenos had a meeting with former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Papadopoulos. It is unclear whether Priebus and Papadopoulos met with the Defense Minister as a duo or separately.

Apart from Greece, Papadopoulos has ties to Israel, Cyprus, and Russia.

During the Inauguration weekend, Papadopoulos again was referred to as “Trump adviser” met with Yossi Dagan, a high-profile Israeli settlement activist. Dagan is well known in Israeli political circles, and has met with Prime Minister Netanyahu numerous times.

Dagan far left and Netanyahu far right

On November 13, Papadopoulos was overseas again representing the Trump agenda, this time in Cyprus. He gave a lengthy interview to local Cyprus news, saying, among other things, “ The US must stop the arms embargo in Cyprus.” It should be noted that former Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort was recently indicted on 12 counts including Money Laundering through bank accounts — yes — in Cyprus.

Russia

According to Papadopoulos’s FBI indictment, “ Based on a conversation that took place on or about March 6, 2016, with a supervisory campaign official (the “Campaign Supervisor”), defendant PAPADOPOULOS understood that a principal foreign policy focus of the Campaign was an improved U.S. relationship with Russia.” With this in mind, Papadopoulos gave an interview to the Jerusalem Post in Israel on April 7, 2016. He states, “ Trump… sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as a responsible actor.”

Papadopoulos learned through a professor in London in late April that the Russians had on Hillary Clinton, including thousands of emails. In mid-August, a Campaign Supervisor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS that “I would encourage you” and another foreign policy advisor to the Campaign to “make the trip [to Russia], if it is feasible.” The next month, Papadopoulos gave an exclusive interview to the Russian news agency Interfax. It is unclear where this interview took place. However, Papadopoulos criticized sanctions against Russia, and hinted at lifting them. He said, “Sanctions have done little more than to turn Russia towards China. It is not in the interest of the West…” He also noted that Russia can be a helpful actor in NATO, Ukraine and elsewhere. At this point, many of the hacked DNC emails had been released. Papadopoulos and an unknown number of his supervisors in the Trump campaign knew that Russia had “thousands of emails” and they knew that Russia was responsible for the DNC hack, yet they still pushed to end sanctions and improve relations.

These previously unreported meetings and circumstances cast doubt on the portrait that the White House has tried to paint about George Papadopoulos. They raise even more questions as to why the Trump team is misreporting the truth and why they insist on covering up all connections to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.