President Trump “nodded with approval” when an ex-adviser offered to arrange a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a campaign powwow in 2016, according to the former aide’s lawyers.

Ex-Trump adviser George Papadopoulos suggested using his Russian connections to broker the sit-down during a March 31, 2016 national security meeting with Trump, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions and other foreign policy advisers, according to court papers his lawyers filed Friday night asking he get probation for lying to the FBI.

“While some in the room rebuffed George’s offer, Mr. Trump nodded with approval and deferred to Mr. Sessions who appeared to like the idea and stated that the campaign should look into it,” lawyers wrote in a defense memo.

Now attorney general, Sessions testified to Congress in November that he pushed back when Papadopoulos made the suggestion.

Papadopoulos lied to the feds about his contacts with Russians, including a meeting with a professor who claimed Russia had “dirt” on Trump’s Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

He’s the first Trump campaign aide to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The special counsel recommended he get six months in prison because his lie “caused damage to the government’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.”

Trump has strongly denied any form of “collusion” with Russians during the campaign.

With Post Wire Services