Mueller Raises Pressure on Trump With Papadopoulos-Russia Link
- Using junior aide as cooperating witness, he’s after others
- Court filing suggests campaign aides aware of Russian attempts
Paul Manafort Indictment: Following the Money
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The first charges unsealed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of the presidential election suggest a sweeping investigation, but one focus is clear: He’s building a case that Donald Trump’s campaign was in close touch with Russian officials who aimed to defeat Hillary Clinton.
That hypothesis begins with a cooperating witness, George Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old junior foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russian operatives. According to a court filing by Mueller, at least two high-level Trump campaign supervisors and other officials were aware of Papadopoulos’s contacts and communications with the Russians.