White House downplays Russia probe charges against Manafort, Papadopoulos

The White House said Monday that newly unveiled criminal charges against former Trump campaign officials, including onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort, have "nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity."

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed Manafort's importance to the campaign, saying he was hired to run then-candidate Donald Trump's delegate operation ahead of the GOP convention and dismissed not long afterward.

She also said foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was working in an "extremely limited" and "volunteer" position, and that he was repeatedly rebuffed or ignored when he made requests "to do things."

"Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity," Sanders told reporters at the White House.

According to court documents unveiled Monday, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge of making false statements to the FBI, and has agreed to cooperate with the government amid a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Court documents show Papadopoulos was in contact with the Trump campaign about setting up a meeting between Trump and Russian officials, and met with a professor who claimed ties to the Russian government and said the Russians had "dirt" on Trump competitor Hillary Clinton.

Sanders said Papadopoulos' role with the campaign was very limited, describing him as a "member of a volunteer advisory council that met one time over the course of a year."

"No activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard," she said. "He reached out and nothing happened beyond that, which I think shows one, his level of importance in the campaign and two, shows what little role he had within coordinating anything officially for the campaign."

Around the same time Sanders spoke with reporters, Manafort and his longtime business partner, Rick Gates, were entering not guilty pleas to conspiracy and other charges at a federal courthouse in Washington.

Manafort was with the Trump campaign for five months, taking over as campaign chairman in May 2016 and then resigning in August of that year amid scrutiny of his dealings with pro-Russia interests in Ukraine.

Gates joined Manafort in working for the Trump campaign and reportedly remained after Manafort's departure. He eventually joined the outside, Trump-supporting group America First Policies, but was reportedly pushed out because of his ties to Manafort.

An official with the group told the Daily Beast on Monday that Gates' "association with America First Polices [sic] was informal and limited."

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