Mueller Impanels Grand Jury in Russia Investigation. Don Jr first up on that Summer Jam Screen…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYGbpTruoco

Caputo: Papadopoulos Was ‘Stupid,’ Had ‘No Business’ Attending Meeting – Talking Points Memo

A former foreign policy adviser for Donald Trump’s campaign who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, was “stupid” and “had no business” sitting in on the March 2016 foreign policy meeting, according to former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo.

That meeting is under fresh scrutiny after recently unsealed court documents show that’s where George Papadopoulos offered to connect Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He was invited in because at the time the campaign was really reeling from criticism that it had no foreign policy or other advisers,” Caputo said during an interview with MSNBC Friday. “Donald Trump prided himself on running a lean and mean campaign. That group was slap dash put together in a way another campaign wouldn’t do it. Papadopoulos had no business being there.”

Caputo — who earlier this week labeled Papadopoulos a “coffee boy” — questioned why Papadopoulos wasn’t awarded a position with the State Department or on the transition team if he was the “kind of guy that had the credentials that would lead him to be in charge of collusion with Russia.”

When asked why the young foreign policy adviser would suggest that the President should meet with Putin if he didn’t think it would curry favor with Trump, Caputo was quick to shoot Papadopoulos down again.

“I think the term of art is he’s stupid,” he said. “This kid was foolish. He proposed something that nobody had any interest in. If you think that Donald Trump sitting there silently and listening and nodding his head is some kind of ideas that he thought it was a good idea to meet with Putin, you’re exaggerating things.”

Caputo’s latest effort to discredit Papadopoulos falls in line with the response Trump and the White House has taken to news that Papadopoulos was encouraged by campaign supervisors to set up a meeting with Russian officials if feasible. Trump has called Papadopoulos a “liar” and a “low level volunteer,” even though he called him an “excellent guy” when naming him as a member of his foreign policy team in 2016.

Mueller is applying renewed pressure on Flynn following his indictment of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

The investigators are speaking to multiple witnesses in coming days to gain more information surrounding Flynn’s lobbying work, including whether he laundered money or lied to federal agents about his overseas contacts, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.

Mueller’s team is also examining whether Flynn attempted to orchestrate the removal of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, two officials said.

A former senior law enforcement official said that in the weeks after Trump’s inauguration the FBI was asked to conduct a new review of Turkey’s 2016 request to extradite Fethullah Gulen, an elderly Muslim cleric living in the U.S. whom President Erdogan blames for orchestrating a coup to overthrow him.

The FBI pushed back on the request because Turkey had supplied no additional information that could incriminate Gulen since a review of the case during the Obama administration, the official said. It is unclear whether the request to investigate Gulen came from Flynn or through the typical diplomatic channels at the State Department.