WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump broke a nearly daylong Twitter silence Tuesday to characterize a former campaign aide who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as a "young low level volunteer" who "few knew."
That might come as a surprise to candidate Donald Trump, who in a March 2016 meeting with the editorial board of The Washington Post highlighted George Papadopoulos' role in his campaign.
Asked about a pending announcement of his foreign policy team, Trump listed Papadopoulos as one of five advisers.
"He's an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy," Trump said.
The adviser also was present at a meeting of Trump's foreign policy team; a picture shows him three seats from Trump.
"The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manaforts lawyer said, there was "no collusion" and events mentioned took place long before he came to the campaign. Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!" Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty early this month to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia during the campaign. The plea was made public Monday.
Trump's tweets also erred in their characterization of the timing of events listed in the indictment of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort's chief aide, Rick Gates. While the 12-count indictment on money laundering, conspiracy and other charges involved events before the campaign, prosecutors specified that the acts continued until 2017.
Trump had tweeted similar sentiments after the Manafort and Gates indictments were announced, but he had not commented since the Papadopoulos plea was made public.
