How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt<br />Stephen Miller, then a senior policy adviser to the campaign<br />and now a top White House aide, was eager for Mr. Papadopoulos to serve as a surrogate, someone who could publicize Mr. Trump’s foreign policy views without officially speaking for the campaign.<br />WASHINGTON — During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to<br />the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.<br />Mr. Papadopoulos, then an ambitious 28-year-old from Chicago, was working as an energy consultant in London when<br />the Trump campaign, desperate to create a foreign policy team, named him as an adviser in early March 2016.<br />He was hardly central to the daily running of the Trump campaign, yet Mr. Papadopoulos<br />continuously found ways to make himself useful to senior Trump advisers.<br />When Mr. Trump’s foreign policy team gathered for the first time at the end of March in Washington,<br />Mr. Papadopoulos said he had the contacts to set up a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin.<br />Congress is investigating where he fits into the swirl of contacts with the Trump campaign, although<br />he has said he is unfairly being scrutinized only because of his support for Mr. Trump.<br />Mr. Clovis, the national campaign co-chairman, severely reprimanded Mr. Papadopoulos<br />for failing to clear his explosive comments with the campaign in advance.
