A low-level foreign adviser to Donald Trump made repeated efforts to set up meetings between the Trump campaign team and Russian leadership, including President Vladimir Putin, during the 2016 presidential election, The Washington Post reported Monday.
George Papadopoulos offered to set up "a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump," but several members on the campaign team expressed concern about the proposal, including then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, co-campaign chairman Sam Clovis, and adviser Charles Kubic, a retired Navy Rear Admiral.
Papadopoulos said in his emails his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, people with access to his messages told the Post. His conversations were among more than 20,000 pages of documents turned over by the Trump campaign to congressional committees investigating potential collusion between Russian officials and Trump's team during the election.
Three months after Papadopoulos sent his initial email, Donald Trump Jr., Manafort, and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who offered to provide damaging information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
A spokesman for Manafort told the Post the email correspondence was evidence the "Russia collusion narrative is fake news."
"Mr. Manafort's swift action reflects the attitude of the campaign — any invitation by Russia, directly or indirectly, would be rejected outright," Jason Maloni said in a statement.
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