The wife of Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has made an impassioned plea to President Donald Trump to grant him a pardon.
Following a wake of grants of mercy from the president, including granting Kim Kardashian’s appeal for clemency for Alice Johnson, Padopoulos’ wife has been on a media blitz for her husband.
Simona Mangiante made the case for Papadopoulos with an interview withCNN on Wednesday.
The former Trump campaign aide pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to lying about his Russian contacts. He is one of two Trump aides to cop a guilty plea, the other being former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
The wife of Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has been on a media blitz to plea for a pardon for her husband
Simona Mangiante said George Papadopoulos ‘is loyal to the truth, and has been through a lot’
‘George is loyal to the truth, and has been through a lot, and is loyal to his country,’ she said on CNN’s ‘The Lead with Jake Tapper.’ ‘He believed in Trump, and I believe in Trump having access to information and awareness now to know that he deserves a pardon.’
‘And of course, one of the reasons I want him to pardon is that I love him,’ she added.
Trump is eyeing pardons for dozens of people, though it’s not clear if Papadopoulos or anyone involved in the Russia investigation is under consideration.
The president has tweeted he could pardon himself in regards to the Russian investigation, should he wish. Legal scholars disagree and several lawmakers, including Republicans, have said such an action would not be advisable.
Loyalty, which Mangiante has emphasized in her interviews, is a trait the president is said to highly value.
Mangiante said Papadopoulos is a ‘victim’ who got confused and ‘made a mistake’ while being questioned by the FBI during its investigation of Russian contacts with Trump’s campaign.
He pleaded guilty last October to lying to the FBI about his contacts.
He has cooperated with the investigation and prosecutors recently asked a judge to prepare for his sentencing.
Papadopoulos faces a maximum sentence of five years behind bars. Prosecutors have agreed, however, to seek a lower sentence of zero to six months in return for his cooperation.
MSNBC asked Mangiante if she had spoken with anyone in the White House about a possible pardon and she said she had not.
Court filings revealed Papadopoulos was in touch with two Russians and a Kremlin-tied professor throughout the campaign. The filings say one of those contacts, professor Joseph Mifsud, told him in April 2016the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails.’
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, had his email account hacked during the 2016 campaign.
Mangiante told CNN Papadopoulos ‘just confused the date’ when talking to investigators about his conversations with Mifsud.
But prosecutors accused him of lying about the content of the conversations.
‘He never had any interactions likely to cause collusion,’ Mangiante said.
Recent reports revealed a confidential FBI source met with Papadopoulos during the campaign and reported to the FBI, which was investigating Russian meddling in the election at the time.
President Trump is said to be considering several pardons and just issued clemency to convicted drug dealer Alice Johnson, who had her case pleaded by Kim Kardashian
It’s unknown if Trump will pardon anyone related to the Russian investigation but did tweet he had the ability to pardon himself if he so choose
George Papadopoulos cooperated with Robert Mueller’s investigation and is expected to receive a light sentence in return
An American professor at Cambridge University, Stefan Halper, allegedly met campaign aide Carter Page and Papadopoulos.
Papadopoulos first met Halper after the academic invited him to England in September 2016 to discuss energy issues, two sources familiar with his account told NBC News.
The Trump aide found Halper’s behavior during these meetings suspicious, the sources said, and also noticed that the academic’s young assistant appeared to flirt with him both during and after the exchanges.
Papadopoulos said Halper, who is now retired, randomly brought up Russians and Clinton’s emails, adding to his suspicions.
There is no public evidence that Halper was an FBI informant, and official sources have refused to comment on the subject. Halper has not given any comment on the issue.
But Trump has claimed that this man was a ‘spy’ embedded in his campaign and demanded the Justice Department investigate the matter.
Papadopoulos has not given any interviews since his guilty plea.
His public appearances have been limited to posts on Twitter and pictures posted on Mangiante’s social media.
Miangiante, an Italian citizen who has done work for the Italian parliament, has done all the talking for the two.
She has offered a starkly different portrait of her fiancee, who the White House said had an ‘extremely limited’ roll in the campaign.
Even Trump tweeted that Papadopoulos was a ‘low level volunteer.’
In December, she said Papadopoulos was no low-level ‘coffee boy’ and was ‘constantly’ in touch had ‘high-level’ officials in the campaign.