Trump pardons George Papadopoulos in latest batch of pardons

President Trump pardoned George Papadopoulos on Tuesday as part of a string of pardons issued in the remaining days of his presidency.

Papadopoulos, who was one of the Trump campaign’s foreign policy advisers in 2016, was charged with one count of making false statements in connection with former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Speculation grew that Papadopoulos might be pardoned after Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn last month, raising questions of who might be next.

The former campaign adviser was the first to be sentenced after pleading guilty in 2018 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries when he was on the campaign. He was sentenced to 14 days in prison and 12 months of supervised release.

“Notably, Mueller stated in his report that he found no evidence of collusion in connection with Russia’s attempts to interfere in the election,” the White House said in its statement. “Nonetheless, the Special Counsel’s team still charged Mr. Papadopoulos with this process-related crime.”

The former Trump campaign aide later ran for the House seat vacated by former Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) when she resigned in 2019.

The president pardoned 15 individuals and issued five commutations on Tuesday evening. Alex van der Zwaan, who was also charged with making false statements regarding the Russia investigation, was also pardoned.