Understanding the Russia Investigations: Papadopoulos

On Oct. 30, documents were unsealed that detailed a guilty plea entered into by the defendant, George Papadopoulos, a former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's presidential campaign. This guilty plea states that Papadopoulos knowingly and willingly made false statements when interviewed as part of the Russian probe. Papadopoulos specifically lied about Russian contacts he made ...

What sets this apart from other events in this investigation is that the person specifically involved in it, Papadopoulos, has pled guilty. This in and of itself is a crucial point. Unlike all other prior instances when a person has been accused of collusion in this investigation, even if he or she has been arrested, that person has maintained their innocence. However, in this case, Papadopoulos ha...

Unlike other events in the Russia probe, this one is set apart by the fact that someone has admitted guilt. For this reason, it makes political bias less prevalent. If any party involved denied what happened, for example if someone pled innocent, then that party’s political proponents and opponents would be more inclined to either support or denounce the truthfulness behind that plea. However, the ...

When reporting the plea of Papadopoulos, most news outlets have been reliable and consistent. As this event largely mimics the Manafort and Gates indictments, there have not been many discrepancies to misinterpret in reports. This time, however, the reporting by these outlets, such as NPR, has been made even more reliable by the fact that the only thing to report has been confirmed by the person wh...

While the constant issue in politically-right news outlets is the underplaying of these events, that has been especially true now regarding Papadopoulos’ role in the campaign. Rather than describe the events, outlets such as Fox News report on the positives of the Trump campaign, leave out the negatives, and focus on issues of their political opponents. President Trump also exemplifies this in ...