In NC, California’s Adam Schiff discusses Manafort indictment and Papadopoulos plea

As news spread about the high-profile indictments stemming from Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and President Donald Trump tried to distance the allegations from his campaign, the California congressman and ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee described the charges as “significant developments.”

Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who has emerged as a leading Trump critic, was in North Carolina on Monday to speak at Duke University.

Schiff and U.S. Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, met with reporters after a technology conference at the Frontier, a Research Triangle Park space that offers office space for startups and small businesses.

They discussed the charges against Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and business associate Rick Gates. He also spoke about the plea arrangement unsealed Monday revealing that George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser, had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.

The Papadopoulos case is the first criminal case that cites interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“That’s significant because he admits that he was informed by Russians that the Russians had stolen Hillary Clinton emails as early as April of last year,” Schiff said Monday. “So going into the Trump tower meeting, the campaign had already been notified that the Russians had the Hillary Clinton emails, or at least thousands of them. That might explain why at a pivotal time in the campaign, you had the three top campaign people take their time to meet with this Russian delegation.”

Schiff said he hoped the Papadopoulos case would lead to more information in both the Mueller and congressional investigations.

“So if as a result of these indictments, Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates cooperate, ultimately there’s a lot we can learn about the nature of those interactions, what proceeded them, what took place after — and I would hope with respect to Mr. Papadopoulos that as a part of his plea agreement, his cooperation was not only required with the federal investigators but the congressional probes as well,” Schiff said.

Schiff talked about the meeting that Papadopoulos is reported to have with a person in Italy who then put him in contact with people in Russia.

“A classic Russian intelligence operation in which the target is ‘bumped’ is what they call it,” Schiff said. “It looks like an accidental meeting. Maybe at times it is an accidental meeting. but it’s apparent when it became clear to the professor that this person had an affiliation with the campaign it became of great interest to the professor who then put him in touch with others in the foreign ministry and elsewhere.”

Schiff said it was “almost inconceivable that if it wasn’t an intelligence operation it didn’t later become an intelligence operation.”

“The Russian intelligence services are too sophisticated to not be kept in the loop about something like this if it wasn’t actively part of their own work,” Schiff said. “So I think it’s quite significant and will lead to even more information for our investigation.”

Price said on Monday the “indictments underscore the importance of an independent, uninterrupted investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election and alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian entities.”

He called the president’s tweets as noteworthy for what they did not acknowledge — the guilty plea of Papadopoulos.

“The American people deserve all of the facts about what may have happened, and Congress should take immediate steps to prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions,” Price said.

This story was originally published October 30, 2017 at 7:10 PM with the headline "In NC, California’s Adam Schiff discusses Manafort indictment and Papadopoulos plea."