Papadopoulos' fiancée counters claim he was just a 'coffee boy'

The fiancée of George Papadopoulos told ABC News that her soon-to-be husband was not the low-level volunteer at the Trump campaign that others have painted him as, countering that Papadopoulos was “constantly in touch with high-level officials in the campaign.”

She said Papadopoulos will instead be remembered as “the first domino in the Russia investigation.”


Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last October to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, according to a plea agreement. Court records show that Papadopoulos discussed with a Russian contact “dirt” on 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” a conversation he initially told the bureau he had had before joining the Trump campaign when in fact it had been after.

In the wake of the plea agreement’s publication, President Donald Trump, who once introduced Papadopoulos as one of his foreign policy advisers and an “excellent guy,” wrote on Twitter that he was a “young, low level volunteer.” Michael Caputo, another Trump campaign adviser, said Papadopoulos was a “coffee boy.”

“First of all, I would love George to learn how to make a coffee, because it's absolutely out of his skills,” Papadopoulos’ fiancée, Simona Mangiante, told ABC News. Far from the inconsequential volunteer that others said he was, Mangiante said Papadopoulos "set up meetings with leaders all over the world” for senior Trump campaign officials. She said she had seen correspondence between Papadopoulos and Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, two of Trump’s highest-level campaign officials.

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Mangiante, an Italian citizen, said she was questioned by the FBI in Chicago about her past political work at the European Parliament in Brussels and about her work for the same Russian contact that Papadopoulos lied to the bureau about. She said she received a subpoena in October but was ultimately not compelled to testify before a grand jury because FBI agents found her interview sufficient. She said the FBI has been “fair.”

“George is very loyal to his country,” Mangiante told ABC News. “He is already on the right side of history. I think he will make a big difference.”

