Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

George Papadopoulos Was Ally Of Israeli Settlers Long Before He Became Russia Probe Target

With the Russian investigation proceeding at a rapid pace, George Papadopoulos, an otherwise marginal campaign adviser to Trump, is now the man in the middle of the explosive probe.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about meetings he held with Russian officials to discuss potentially damning information about Hillary Clinton during the campaign.

Legal analysts say Papadopoulos’s plea deal might signal that he is ready to dish dirt on Paul Manafort or President Trump.

To Israelis, the young adviser is well known.

As a consultant on energy issues, he took special interestin emerging gas deals between Israel, Greece and Cyprus and advised Israel to use its newly found gas reserves to forge a alliance with Greece and Cyprus.

Papadopoulos was also an honored guest at a pre-inauguration reception held by representatives of the Jewish settler community in the West Bank. At the event, which took place in Washington, where he expressed his support, in a short video to the settlers, stating: “We hope that the people of Judea and Samaria will have a great 2017. We are looking forward to ushering in a new relationship with all of Israel, including the historic Judea and Samaria.” In the report about the meeting, Papadopoulos was described as an adviser to President Trump, although at the time he did not hold any official capacity with the administration.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.