Inmates treated ex-Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos as a 'political celebrity'
Papadopoulos's lawyers are asking for a presidential pardon as the former aide releases a book recounting his version of events.
Thursday 28 March 2019 22:26, UK
George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign aide who was jailed for lying to the FBI, has told Paste BN he was treated as a "political celebrity" in prison and was warmly welcomed by Trump-supporting inmates.
In November 2018, the 31-year-old admitted lying to investigators and was sentenced to two weeks at a minimum-security federal facility in rural central Wisconsin.
"Most of them support the president including most of the guards there and I guess the inmates saw me as a bit of a political celebrity…I was in there with doctors, lawyers and businessmen," he said.
He described a very friendly and familiar welcome inside.
"I had a couple of nicknames in there and you know funny things like Pappy and your Pappy, you're the man, you're Papadopoulos, you know 'can you help me with my jail sentence?' 'Can you talk to the president for me?' I mean there were some funny comments like that."
Papadopoulos, who was once described by a fellow aide as a mere "coffee boy", served as one of the Trump campaign's foreign policy advisers.
He attracted FBI attention for his association with the Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, who told him in 2016 that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton.
But Papadopoulos is now considering withdrawing his guilty plea and his legal team have asked the Trump administration for a presidential pardon.
In an interview with Fox News this week, the president did not rule it out.
"Many, many people were incredibly hurt by this whole scam," Mr Trump said.
"I don't want to talk about pardons now, but I can say it's so sad on so many levels."
I asked Papadopoulos why he thought he deserved one after admitting lying to investigators about communications with a foreign adversary.
"I never actually thought I deserved one…my lawyers are the ones who filed this pardon application because they believe that's in my legal interest as their client," he said, distancing himself somewhat from the direct request.
He hopes his new book Deep State Target will help the process though and he is wasting no time in criticising Robert Mueller.
Days after the special counsel handed over his report to Attorney General William Barr, Papadopoulos says he doesn't believe Mueller acted "honourably" and claims the "basis and foundation" of the Russia investigation was "corrupted".
The president and some in Congress, he maintains, share his view.
"When an investigation should have never started in the first place, as the president's own lawyer stated yesterday, then justice I don't think was served."
His own brush with the special counsel's team was an intimidating experience.
"Imagine this. You're 29 years old. You're enjoying a wonderful vacation in Europe with your then-girlfriend in Greece and Italy and you were at the peak of your life and then you are flying back to the United States where you're expecting a job… and you're violently arrested at an airport.
"You don't understand what you're being arrested for initially, and you are then in front of a magistrate who's telling you you're looking at 35 years in prison without quite understanding your situation.
"You're then in front of a group of star prosecutors - the Mueller team. They're very intimidating. You don't want to get on the wrong side of these people. I certainly didn't want to. It was confusing."
He recently revealed the FBI asked him to wear a wire, but he refused.
"I'm not the professional," he said. "I'm not the intelligence operative. I'm not the investigator.
"I am the person who is there to give the information for the FBI to conduct a thorough investigation and use their surveillance tactics, their ways and methods of finding out if what I'm telling them is credible or not."
After two years of being banned from talking to anyone about the investigation, he is clearly revelling in his new-found freedom.
Mr Mueller's conclusion that there was no evidence of collusion or conspiracy has clearly encouraged him.
We still have not seen the full extent of Mr Mueller's findings - his report is expected to be more than 300 pages long.
But Papadopoulos, one of the 34 individuals caught in the crosshairs, is keen to get people reading his version of events first.