How a Trump Adviser and a Mysterious Russian Operative Triggered an FBI Probe During The 2016 Election

Last week, we delved into Russia’s inside man, Paul Manafort, and the role he played in aligning Russian interests with the Trump campaign’s internal strategy — delivering sensitive polling data to a Russian intelligence operative and opening a covert channel for Kremlin operations. This week, we turn to another figure in the early stages of Russia’s direct outreach to the Trump campaign: George Papadopoulos — a minor campaign adviser who became a conduit between Trump’s circle and the Kremlin’s network of operatives, cutouts, and influence brokers.

By the time George Papadopoulos officially joined Donald Trump’s ragtag foreign policy team in early 2016, he had spent months hovering on the fringes of the campaign — desperate for recognition, relevance, and a foothold in Trump’s inner circle. His resume was thin, more aspirational than substantive, marked by a master’s degree from a little-known London program, a stint at the Hudson Institute that ended without distinction, and a brief role on the Ben Carson campaign, while living in London. But what Papadopoulos lacked in credentials, he made up for in eagerness, and it was precisely this combination that made him an ideal early target for Russian operatives probing access points to Trump’s orbit.

Months before Papadopoulos’ official appointment, he had begun reaching out to Trump campaign officials through a series of persistent emails — first to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in July 2015, and then to Michael Glassner, the campaign’s executive director. Rebuffed several times, he didn’t let up. By February 2016, he had shifted his base of operations from the then-defunct Ben Carson team to a position at the London Centre of International Law Practice (LCILP), a shadowy organization with dubious academic legitimacy and unclear funding, whose affiliations would later raise questions about its ties to Russian-linked actors operating under the cover of academia.

In March 2016, after months of lobbying, Papadopoulos finally received the call he’d been waiting for: Sam Clovis, Trump’s national campaign co-chair and chief policy advisor, invited him to join the campaign as a foreign policy advisor. The offer came with minimal vetting and no clear oversight. And within a week, Papadopoulos was in Rome, participating in meetings arranged through his position at LCILP, including one that would later fundamentally alter the trajectory of the investigation into Russian election interference.

https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/how-a-trump-adviser-and-a-mysterious