George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign, has decided to stick with his plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, his wife told ABC News on Wednesday.
The decision puts to rest weeks of public hand-wringing by his wife, Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, who has been acting as an informal spokeswoman for her husband. She said in an interview with ABC News earlier this month that her husband was strongly considering backing away from the agreement he struck with Mueller that led him to plead guilty to lying to the FBI.
“George will take responsibility for some inaccuracies during the interview with the FBI,” Mangiante Papadopoulos said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday, adding that she hopes the judge determining his fate will not send the former Trump campaign adviser to jail.
Mangiante Papadopoulos had in recent weeks spoken out about her belief that her husband was in some way set up by the government. They were reconsidering their plea, she said, because they contemplated fighting the charges based on that belief.
She told ABC News that, even though they are not fighting the government, she hopes “the judge will take into account” those concerns “in order to assess George’s role in this investigation from an objective point of view and, yes, definitely decide for zero jail time.”
