Trump Campaign Aide Pushed For Meetings With Russia: WaPo

WASHINGTON, DC — A volunteer foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign repeatedly tried to arrange meetings with Russian government officials as early as March 2016, according to a Monday night report from the Washington Post citing internal emails.

The emails were a part of campaign documents turned over to the congressional investigations into Russia 2016 election activities this month after being reviewed by multiple lawyers. The adviser in question, George Papadopoulos, told multiple members of the campaign that Putin wanted to open up dialogue with the campaign, but higher level officials on the team pushed back, the Post reports. Among those who raised objections, the reporters found, was campaign Manager Paul Manafort, whose home was recently raided as a part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into these matters. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Watch: Report: Emails Show Trump Volunteer Tried To Broker Russia Meeting

Manafort said in a statement that the emails proved the Russia story is fake news. However, the report itself paints a complex picture, and suggests that the campaign might have known about the Putin regime's favoritism for the Trump campaign much earlier than had previously been revealed. After Papadopoulos made his overtures as described by the Post, the members of the Trump campaign had multiple meetings with people representing the Russian government, including an encounter arranged between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

For the full report, visit the Washington Post>>

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