Yuri Gripas/Reuters
Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos.
- Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI.
- He is the first former campaign aide to be sentenced in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
- Papadopoulos admitted to lying to investigators about conversations he had with Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, who told Papadopoulos that the Russian government had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton during the election.
George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy aide to President Donald Trump's campaign, has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI.
The sentence was imposed Friday in federal court in Washington, DC. In addition to prison, a federal judge ordered Papadopoulos to pay a $9,500 fine and complete 300 hours of community service.
He is the first former campaign aide to be sentenced in the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Papadopoulos apologized for his actions during his sentencing hearing on Friday, telling the judge that he had made a "dreadful mistake" and was eager for redemption. Prosecutors sought a sentence of up to six months, while defense lawyers asked for probation.
Papadopoulos' case was the first to detail a member of the Trump campaign having knowledge of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election while it was ongoing.
He pleaded guilty last year to lying to investigators during a January 2017 FBI interview about conversations he had with Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, who told Papadopoulos in March 2016 that the Russian government had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of hacked emails.
Prosecutors said Papadopoulos' lies caused irreparable harm to the investigation and he did not provide substantial assistance, but his attorneys said he cooperated fully.
Papadopoulos' wife, Simona Maginante, has ramped up claims as of late that her husband is innocent and was entrapped by the FBI and pressured into pleading guilty. She attempted, unsuccessfully, to scrap Papadopoulos' plea deal with Mueller on that basis.
"Knowing his case, he clearly didn't commit any crime, since every crime is characterized by a 'status of mind' [sic] and a motive, it's pretty clear George had no reason to lie about the date in which he met with professor Mifsud," Maginante told Business Insider in August.
Two other Trump campaign aides, Michael Flynn and Rick Gates, have also struck plea deals to cooperate in the Mueller probe, but neither have yet been sentenced.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted in Virginia last month on 8 counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to register foreign bank accounts. He will face a second federal trial in Washington, DC, this month.
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