Trump: ‘Don’t remember much’ about Papadopoulos meeting

President Trump said Friday he does not “remember much” about a March 2016 meeting with George Papadopoulos, a campaign aide who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. 

“I don’t remember much about that meeting, it was an unimportant meeting,” Trump said at the White House. “Took place a long time — don’t remember much about it.”

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Papadopoulos’s admission was unsealed this week by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The plea agreement contained the clearest evidence yet of a connection with the Kremlin’s election-meddling effort and the Trump campaign. Whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia is the central question in Mueller’s probe.

Papadopoulos, 30, attended a meeting with then-candidate Trump and members of his campaign team at which he offered to set up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a court filing.

Trump and Putin did not meet during the campaign. 

The president repeated his assertion that his campaign did not collude with Russia to tip the election in his favor. 

“All I can tell you is this: There was no collusion, there was no nothing,” he told reporters.

Trump and his aides have consistently downplayed Papadopoulos’s involvement on the campaign, calling him a low-level “volunteer” who was not involved with important decisions.

While Trump claimed not to remember the meeting with Papadopoulos, just two weeks ago he cited his long memory in disputing negative accounts of his condolence call with the widow of a slain U.S. soldier.  

“One of the great memories of all time,” he said at the time.