Special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE has recommended that former Trump campaign staffer George PapadopoulosGeorge Demetrios PapadopoulosTale of two FBI cases: Clinton got warned, Trump got investigated Trump says he would consider pardons for those implicated in Mueller investigation New FBI document confirms the Trump campaign was investigated without justification MORE be sentenced to zero to six months in prison and face a fine of $9,500.

Mueller stated in a court filing Friday that those penalties “are warranted and appropriate” for Papadopoulos's conduct in lying to federal investigators.

Mueller wrote in the filing that Papadopoulos chose to lie to federal investigators during a voluntary interview and that he “was expressly warned that it is a crime to lie to federal investigators.”

"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 court document states.

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The former Trump campaign employee reached a plea agreement with Mueller’s team last year and is set to be sentenced in September.

Papadopoulos's wife, Simona Mangiante, is urging her husband to break off the plea deal and stop cooperating with Mueller.

"I trusted the institutions until they proved me wrong," Mangiante told MSNBC on Thursday, adding that she had learned of "exculpatory evidences that fully justify him to drop off his plea agreement."

The court filing Friday states that Mueller’s team is “aware that the defendant and his spouse have participated in several additional media interviews concerning his case.”