President Donald Trump listened when a campaign adviser floated the idea of arranging a meeting between the then-candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according a former campaign national security adviser JD Gordon.
“He heard him out,” Gordon told CNN on Thursday of the March 31, 2016 meeting in which foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos suggested the encounter.
Gordon’s account of the meeting falls in line with multiple reports that the President didn’t rule out the suggestion, but he didn’t agree to it either. Then-Alabama senator and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly shut down the suggestion, according to several reports.
The President himself said he has little memory of the meeting with Papadopoulos, telling reporters Friday that it “took place a long time (ago), don’t remember much about it.”
In October, Papdopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials, according to recently unsealed court documents, which also reveal that Papadopoulos told Trump and his advisers that he could help arrange a meeting with the then-candidate and Putin.
Since the Papadopoulos findings from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe came out Monday, Trump and the White House have worked to distance the President from his former foreign policy adviser, with Trump calling him a “low level volunteer,” a “liar” and even a mere “coffee boy.”
