Story highlights Papadopoulos' role on the Trump campaign has been the subject of intense debate

His fiancee said she is speaking out now because he cannot

Washington (CNN) The fiancee of former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, is speaking out publicly to push back against claims by President Donald Trump and his team that Papadopoulos was just a "coffee boy" on the campaign.

Papadopoulos' fiancee, Simona Mangiante, told CNN in an interview that Papadopoulos was "everything but a coffee boy" who worked with senior members of the Trump campaign.

Mangiante said she is speaking out now because her fiance cannot.

"His contributions to the campaign has been much more relevant than bringing coffee," she said. "I think they wanted to disassociate from the first person who decided to actively cooperate with the government, on the right side. And probably the easiest way out is to dismiss his personality and lower him to a low-level volunteer."

Papadopoulos' role on the Trump campaign has been the subject of intense debate since his guilty plea was made public by special counsel Robert Mueller in October. The court documents detailed how he reached out to a London professor with connections to the Russian government who had offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

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