Accepting a plea deal 30-year-old former Trump foreign policy advisEr George Popadopoulos for so-called lying to FBI officials, a more careful inquiry shows that he tried to salvage U.S.-Russian relations after years of neglect under former President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump ran on a campaign to improve U.S.-Russian relations, hitting new Cold War lows with Obama’s backing of the seven-year-old Saudi proxy war in Syria. Obama refused cooperate with Russian President Vladimir Putin who told Obama—and the U.N.—in 2015 that toppling Syrian Bashar al-Assad would spread more chaos in the Middle East. Obama shrugged, giving cash-and-arms to Syrian rebel groups looking to topple al-Assad. Instead of working to improve U.S.-Russian relations after Putin seized Crimea March 1, 2014, Obama did everything possible to push relations to the brink.
Scoring any points possible, Special Counsel former FBI Director Robert Mueller pressured Papadopoulos to plead guilty to a single count of lying to FBI agents, nitpicking over when he talked to a Russian “professor” about whatever dirt he had on Hillary. Papadopoulos told agents he talked to the “professor” before he was part of the Trump campaign. Whether it was before-or-after joining the campaign, Papadopoulos had only one thing in mind: Improving U.S.-Russian relations. “Russia does not believe in American promises, and the atmosphere of mutual confidence has been lost. Trump, if elected, president, will restore the trust,” Papadopoulos told a Russian newspaper. With all the Russian hysteria on Capitol Hill, Papadopoulos was labeled a spy or somehow confirming Washington’s collusion hypothesis. Papadopoulos did his job trying to set a better tone for U.S.-Russian relations.
While there’s nothing illegal about talking to Russian officials, today’s Russia hysteria makes it impossible to conduct responsible foreign policy. Take former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn for example. Flynn’s innocuous conversations with former Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak hounded him out of his job. All Flynn tried to do was establish groundwork, like Papadopoulos, to improve U.S.-Russian relations by the time Trump took office. Taking hypocrisy to cosmic levels, the Hillary Campaign paid former British MI6 agent Michael Steele to dredge up dirt on Trump from his Russian sources. Offering Papadopoulos dirt on Hillary, the “professor,” never delivered on the juicy tidbits, including any hidden emails. Yet Mueller twisted Papadopoulos’s arm on a technicality when he talked to the “professor” about possible dirt the Hillary.
Speaking to the Jerusalem Post April 7, 2016, Papadopoulos told associates at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies that Trump’s overarching strategy was to seek better U.S.-Russian relations to deal with a host of global interests. “Trump, says Papnadopoulous, sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as a responsible actor and potential partner,” reported the Jerusalem Post. Telling the Post Trump was committed to “combating the export of radical and violent Islam from the Middle East,” Panpadopoulos showed the true intent of all his Russian conversations: Improve U.S.-Russian relations to work together on urgent global issues. Papadopoulos told Interfact Sept. 30, 2016 that Trump wanted to “usher in a new chapter in U.S.-Russian ties,” the record was clear that he was not primarily seeking Russian help to dredge up dirt on Hillary.
Watching Papadopoulos plea bargain under duress makes Mueller look like a rogue prosecutor. Raiding former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort’s home July 26, Mueller showed his desperation to file charges against anyone connected to the Trump campaign. Instead of referring Manfort to another federal prosecutor, Mueller sought to score points, knowing the charges aren’t related to his mandate to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election or any Trump collusion. Whatever the “conspiracy,” money laundering or tax evasion charges against Manafort, they’re not related to his May 17 mandate as Special Counsel. Mueller and his predecessor former FBI Director James Comey, have not admitted to using Hillary’s paid dossier on Trump to justify seeking warrants to spy on Trump campaign officials from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] court.
Papadopopolous finds himself snared in Mueller’s overly wide net, looking to score any points against the Trump administration. There’s nothing in Papadopoulos’s history that suggest any collusion with Russian officials, other than trying to do his job of improving U.S.-Russian relations. “It is in the interest of the U.S. NATO and Russia to deescalate hostilities immediately and world together toward combating common threats,” said Papadopoulos told Interfaz, adding that Obama’s sanctions after Crimea were making matters worse. Since Trump took office, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill did everything possible to sabotage any attempt by Trump’s White House to improve U.S.-Russian relations. Any mention of reconciling with Russia is met by accusations of collusion. Caught in Mueller’s dragnet, Papadopoulos is the latest victim of Washington’s Russia hysteria.
