Papadopoulos was in regular contact with Stephen Miller, helped edit Trump speech: report

The campaign aide who suggested that President Trump journey to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign was in regular contact with now-White House aide Stephen Miller, The New York Times reported Friday.

George Papadopoulos was in regular contact with Miller during the spring of 2016, a period during which Papadopoulos also helped edit a major foreign policy speech Trump delivered, according to the Times.

In late October, Trump referred to Papadopoulos as a “low-level volunteer” on his campaign after it was revealed that Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials about his Russian contacts.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also said Papadopoulos had a “limited” role in the campaign.

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“Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar,” Trump tweeted in October.

In one of the emails to Miller cited by the Times, Papadopoulos told the now-key White House aide that Trump had an “open invitation” from Putin to visit Russia.

An investigation last week revealed that despite the Trump aide’s description as a “coffee boy” by other Trump campaign officials, Papadopoulos represented the candidate at multiple forums and meetings.

Trump said last week that he couldn’t remember a March 2016 meeting with Papadopoulos and other campaign officials during which the young aide offered to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin. 

“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.”

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a foreign professor who told him that Russians had thousands of emails containing “dirt” on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the Justice Department announced last month.

The charges stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia during the 2016 election.

Papadopoulos faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release as part of a plea deal with the government.