Convicted ex-adviser to Trump probed over Israel ties launches US Congress bid

A former adviser to US President Donald Trump who admitted lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russians announced Monday he is running for a US Congress seat in California.

“I’m running for the 25th congressional district,” George Papadopoulos told Fox News.

“I’m here to promote the America-first agenda, and to enact legislation that has real-life consequences for the American people.”

The seat, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, was vacated this month by Democrat Katie Hill, who resigned amid lurid revelations about her private life and the publication of nude photos without her consent.

A special election will be held in May.

Papadopoulos, 32, was a member of Trump’s foreign policy advisory panel when he ran for president in 2016.

He was catapulted from obscurity when he pleaded guilty in October 2017 to lying to the FBI about contacts with a professor who promised to connect him to senior Russian officials.

Papadopoulos pursued a back channel that led him to contact with individuals who claimed Moscow had “dirt” on Trump’s Democratic election opponent Hillary Clinton.

He cooperated with investigators led by Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who conducted a two-year probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Papadopoulos spent 12 days in jail after his guilty plea, and subsequently wrote a book about what he describes as “the plot to bring down President Trump.”

In a section of the Mueller report addressing whether any members of the Trump campaign were acting for foreign governments, it states that Mueller looked into whether Papadopoulos acted on behalf of the Israeli government. Papadopoulos and his wife had both previously made claims to the media that Mueller had probed his ties with Israel, claims that were confirmed when the report was published in April.

“While the investigation revealed significant ties between Papadopoulos and Israel (and search warrants were obtained in part on that basis), the Office ultimately determined that the evidence was not sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction under [the Foreign Agents Registration Act] or Section 951” of the tax code, the report read.

Papadopoulos said he met with two Israeli businessmen in 2017 over a “routine” investment proposal. He had shown an interest in Israel’s energy sector and in April 2016, just days after he was named to the Trump campaign, attended an energy conference in Israel.

Papadopoulos later accused the two men of trying to frame him. He said that an Israeli, George Tawil, introduced him to Shai Arbel, who co-founded the Israeli cyber-intelligence company Terrogence, as part of a scheme to plant marked hundred dollars bills on him in order to incriminate Papadopoulos when FBI agents searched his luggage upon his return to the United States.

Trump, currently facing likely impeachment, downplayed his connection to Papadopoulos during the case against his former aide.

But in July he tweeted out his support, wishing Papadopoulos “good luck” with his book.

In a Twitter post Papadopoulos said the nation needs “fighters, principled men/women with true conviction in the party’s platform who put America first.”

On Fox he said California, whose government and representatives are largely Democratic, has “tremendous potential,” but that “the governing apparatus and the party in this state has driven it right into the ground.”

Christy Smith, a Democrat in California’s State Assembly, is among several candidates who have announced they will run to replace Hill.

JTA contributed to this report.