When George Papadopoulos was hired by the Donald Trump campaign, he …
“… understood that a principal foreign policy focus of the Campaign was an improved U.S. relationship with Russia.”
Papadopoulos had that understanding, because that’s what he was told by Trump campaign co-chair Sam Clovis on the day he was hired. From that moment, Papadopoulos attempted to make connections with the Russian government, and at every turn he got encouragement. When he told Clovis that he was arranging a meeting between Trump and Russian leadership, he was told “Great work.”
Just a week later, Papadopoulos was back in the United States for a meeting of Trump’s national security advisers. At that meeting, he presented the idea of a Russia meeting directly to Donald Trump.
Candidate Donald Trump did not dismiss the idea of arranging a meeting with Russia's president when it was suggested in a meeting with his campaign foreign policy advisers last year, according to a person in the room.
According to others at the meeting, Jefferson Sessions shut down conversation on the idea at the time. But it appears that no one told Papadopoulos to discontinue his efforts. He talked to Paul Manafort, he talked repeatedly with Clovis, and what he got from them was a green light to continue discussions.
And what’s immediately obvious is that Donald Trump did not tell them to stop.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave a non-denial denial of Trump’s discussion with Papadopoulos.
Asked about the description, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the President does not recall specifics of the meeting.
"Again, it was a brief meeting that took place quite some time ago. It was the one time that group ever met," Sanders said on Monday.
So, based on the current statements from those who were there, Papadopoulos told Trump he was trying to arrange a meeting at the Kremlin, Sessions told him to shut up, but no one—including Trump—told Papadopoulos to stop working toward that meeting.
A few days after the meeting, Papadopoulos’ was again sending emails.
In early April 2016, defendant Papadopoulos sent multiple emails to other members of the Campaign’s foreign policy team regarding his contacts with “the Russians” and his “outreach to Russia.”
That foreign policy team was headed by Sessions. If Sessions did act to shut Papadopoulos up at the meeting, he certainly did not act to stop his pursuit of Russian contacts afterwards.
Manafort knew what Papadopoulos was doing. Sessions knew. Trump knew. Not one of them told him “no.”