Mueller recommends 6-month sentence for Papadopoulos
Special counsel Robert Mueller recommended in a court filing on Friday that former Trump campaign staffer George Papadopoulos be sentenced to a maximum of six months in prison. Papadopoulos is set to be sentenced on September 7.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October 2017 of one count of lying to FBI agents working for Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He was the first person charged in connection with Mueller's investigation.
In the court filing, Mueller wrote that Papadopoulos' "lies negatively affected the FBI's Russia investigation" and his "lies were not momentarily lapses."
"He lied repeatedly over the course of more than two hours, and his lies were designed to conceal facts he knew were critical," the court filing says.
Papadopoulos was a member of the campaign's foreign policy team, but President Trump's aides have downplayed his role in the campaign. Aides say he had no access to Mr. Trump.
Mueller's filing also called out recent public statements made by Papadopoulos' wife Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos. Mangiante Papadopoulos has said recently her husband came forward "voluntarily" and identified his source, but the documents say "to the contrary," Papadopoulos only identified the professor linked to the Kremlin when asked specific questions.
Mangiante Papadopoulos, who married Papadopoulos in March, has said she wants her husband to break off the plea deal and stop cooperating with Mueller. She appeared before the House Intelligence Committee in July.
