Inside secret court hearing in Mueller's Trump-Russia probe Audio reveals details of George Papadopoulos' July arraignment in closed Virginia courtroom.

One of the first court appearances by special counsel Robert Mueller's team got off to an inauspicious start with a federal magistrate scolding prosecutors for being late.

"Where were you all? This was scheduled for 2 o'clock," a gruff-sounding U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan told the prosecution team last July as they entered her Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom to arraign former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos on charges of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about the timeline of his Russia-related contact.


"We were informed it had been moved to 3 o'clock. We apologize if we misunderstood that it had been rescheduled," prosecutor Brandon Van Grack replied to the judge's query.

The July 28 hearing took place behind closed doors, but after the case was formally unsealed, POLITICO obtained audio of the roughly eight-minute session.

Much of the exchange between Buchanan and Van Grack that day centered on the formalities of closing the courtroom during Papadopolous' appearance.

"I can't get ahold of the judge. Are you telling me he actually entered an order sealing this case?" Buchanan asked.

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Indeed, Van Grack said, the chief judge of the district court in Washington, D.C., had issued such an order. (That judge, Beryl Howell, also happens to be a she.)

"We need to seal the courtroom then. I'm sorry to make you all go back out, but we need to seal the courtroom again," Buchanan announced to those in the gallery.

When the case was called, Van Grack declared that he was appearing for the United States along with Mueller team prosecutors Jeannie Rhee and Andrew Goldstein.

Buchanan told Papadopolous to stand and formally advised him he'd been charged in a criminal complaint with obstruction of justice and making false official statements. She then called on Van Grack to lay out the maximum penalties: five years and a $250,000 fine for the false statement charge and 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine for the obstruction charge.

Van Grack said the government wasn't seeking Papadopolous' detention — a somewhat unusual move since agents had just arrested him. But the Chicago-based energy consultant was told to give up his passports (two of them) and to keep away from individuals and entities related to the charges against him.

Some of the few words from the defendant came after Buchanan asked whether he had a lawyer or needed a court-appointed attorney.

"I do have my own attorney," Papadopoulos said.

The former Trump campaign adviser replied "Yes" when the magistrate asked whether he understood his obligation to appear in court when requested, but chimed in moments later to indicate he didn't know whom he was forbidden to contact.

"Is it possible to know what individuals and entities" shouldn't be contacted? he asked.

"You'll have to give him a list," Buchanan said to prosecutors.

"Yes, your honor," Van Grack said.

"All right. He'll be released. Thank you," Buchanan said, before another exchange with Van Grack about an order the prosecutor said was needed to seal the courtroom.

Legal experts said the brief appearance was noteworthy in a couple of respects.

First, Papadopoulos had no defense attorney. Typically, a public defender will stand in in such situations at least temporarily.

"That's odd," former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer said. "You would not normally have a defendant appearing before the court and not be represented. The court wasn't concerned with it, but that was strange."

Second, Papadopoulos' arrest seems to have been the product of some haste. Indeed, when he was arrested at Dulles Airport on July 27 after coming off a flight from Munich, prosecutors had no warrant for him and no indictment or criminal complaint. The complaint would be filed the following morning and approved by Howell in Washington.

And when prosecutors filed the complaint the next day they got a spoken order from Howell to seal it, but followed up with a written request that they could take to the magistrate in Alexandria, where they showed up almost an hour later than she expected.

All of it suggests something of a scramble, rather than a carefully prepared plan to take Papadopolous into custody.

A defense lawyer for Papadopoulos, Thomas Breen, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Mueller's office declined to comment.

Whatever transpired in the 24 hours after Papadopoulos landed at Dulles, it doesn't seem to have impaired his cooperation with Mueller's team.

At another sealed hearing in Washington in October, he entered a guilty plea to the false statement charge, while prosecutors dropped the more serious obstruction count.

A statement of facts agreed to by both the prosecution and the defense says he's been aiding investigators since he was taken into custody at Dulles three months ago.

"Following his arrest, defendant PAPADOPOULOS met with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions," the statement said.

Cramer said the arrest, the sealed hearing and the defendant's release the next day all suggest prosecutors didn't want the energy consultant's associates aware that he was in trouble with the feds and wanted to keep open the possibility of using him to try to extract damaging admissions from others.

"That's pretty consistent with if you want to send him back in or use him," the ex-prosecutor said. "If you're picking someone up and want to send them back into their organization, if people know he's been arrested they're going to run away from this guy. ... It also shows you're serious. That's going to show this isn't a game."