Papadopoulos Addressed Jewish Event For Trump Campaign At GOP Convention

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By Aiden Pink October 31, 2017

George Papadopoulos, the unpaid Trump campaign official who pleaded guilty earlier this year to making false statements to the FBI in relation to the Trump-Russia investigation, spoke on the campaign’s behalf at a panel at the Republican National Convention in July organized by the American Jewish Committee.

The White House has sought to portray Papadopoulos as a low-level volunteer with an “extremely limited” role.

But the campaign offered Papadopoulos as a panelist for a July 20 American Jewish Coalition event on the sidelines of the convention in Cleveland.

“He was a volunteer …. again, on a council that met once,” Sanders said.

Papadopoulos and other speakers, including Sen. Bob Corker (then one of Trump’s top supporters but now a major critic), discussed the Iran nuclear deal and America’s role in global affairs.

The Cleveland Jewish News announced in July 2016 that they and AJC would co-sponsor four panel discussions during the convention. Videos of two of the four events are featured on AJC’s YouTube channel, but the event featuring Papadopoulos is not.

The following month, Trump national campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis emailed Papadopoulos to “encourage” him to travel to Russia to meet with Russian officials, according to court documents and news reports.

Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

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