Papadopoulos' Wife Says She's Not a Russian Spy

(18 Jul 2018) The wife of former Donald Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos defended her husband in an interview with Democrats on the House intelligence committee that lasted more than four hours. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year to lying to investigators about his contacts with people linked to Russia during the campaign. He then became a key cooperator for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump's associates. Papadopoulos is expected to be sentenced in September. Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos said she traveled to Washington for the interview, even paying her own way, because she wanted to be transparent. Democrats are frustrated that the GOP-led House intelligence committee would not call more witnesses before it completed its Russia investigation earlier this year, and have started doing some of their own interviews. No Republicans were present. A foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos met a professor, Joseph Mifsud, in London during the campaign. Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians had obtained "dirt" on Clinton, including thousands of emails. Papadopoulos later emailed a senior policy adviser in the Trump campaign to say he had some "interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right." He continued to push for a meeting with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which never happened during the campaign. Papadopoulos's wife, who has been his frequent defender on Twitter and television, said she told the Democrats that Papadopoulos "didn't try to collude with Misfud to obtain any emails" and was just trying to set up the meeting between Trump and Putin, an effort that was unsuccessful. Papadopoulos also attempted to clear up any rumors that she is a spy herself by speaking in Italian. She said people often mistake her accent for Russian. "I have been accused of being Russian spy," she said. "No, I'm not that interesting. I'm an Italian national 100 percent." The GOP-led intelligence panel's report issued this Spring said the probe found no evidence of "collusion, coordination or conspiracy" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Democrats were furious, saying the Republicans had blocked many witnesses Democrats has wanted to call. Among those were Maria Butina, a 29-year-old gun-rights activist who was charged this week with being a covert Russian agent who gathered intelligence on American officials. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...