The fiancee of former Trump campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos says he was no low-level ‘coffee boy’ and was ‘constantly’ in touch had ‘high-level’ officials in the campaign.
Simona Mangiante also described him as a worldly figure steeped in energy issues who met with leaders ‘all over the world.’
Miangiante, who was born in Italian and has done work for the Italian parliament, offered a starkly different portrait of her fiancee, who the White House say had an ‘extremely limited’ roll in the campaign.
One former Trump aide, Michael Caputo, even mocked him as a ‘coffee boy’ after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office unsealed a guilty plea that Papadopoulos admitted lying to the FBI about contacts that led to Moscow.
Simona Mangiante defended her fiance George Papadopoulos and called him a ‘patriot’ who had high-level campaign contacts
‘First of all, I would love George to learn how to make a coffee, because it’s absolutely out of his skills,’ she told ABC News, laughing off the description.
‘George is a remarkable young man with incredible experience in the field of energy and oil policies. This experience led him to get into the campaign and to advise the president at only 28 years old.’
She also described Papadopoulos, who the government has described as cooperative, as a ‘patriot.’
Simona Mangiante is defending her fiancee, George Papadopoulos, as a ‘patriot’ after he was written off by the White House as a low-level aide
‘George is very loyal to his country,” she told George Stephanopoulos on ‘Good Morning America.’
“He is already on the right side of history. I think he will make a big difference,” she said.
Both Mangiante and Papadopoulos did work for Joseph Mifsud, the London-based Maltese professor who features in the information provided by the government in the Papadopoulos guilty plea. The government says he had Kremlin contacts and offered to get ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton.
Both the Italian Mangiante and Papadopoulos spoke to investigators in Chicago
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says he had an ‘extremely limited’ roll that was a volunteer position
Mangiante said the academic, who had an eclectic background outside of the traditional university track but talked up his contacts in Moscow, was ‘opaque.’
‘It was never clear to me, his role. He doesn’t strike me as an academic. He always [was] someone networking [with] people from different governments,’ she said.
Mangiante herself has been interviewed by U.S. investigators, and appears to be cooperative.
She says she got interviewed at the FBI field office in Chicago, and was asked if she speaks Russian – she does not – while being quizzed about her own background.
‘I must say that they have been fair,’ she said. ‘And I was happy to give my contribution.’