UPDATE 1900 GMT: George Papadopoulos, described by Donald Trump as a foreign policy advisor in March 2016, has pled guilty to making a false statement to the FBI after he lied about his interactions with foreign officials close to the Kremlin.

In court records unsealed on Monday, the FBI said Papadopoulos “falsely described his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed ‘dirt’ related to emails” concerning Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in April 2016 — two months before a Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and three Kremlin-linked envoys over anti-Clinton material, and almost three months before Trump called on Russia to hack Clinton’s private server.

Read the records

Other records confirm reports that Trump campaign officials were considering Russian invitations to go to Moscow.

Although his arrest and plea was only revealed today, the records show Papadopoulos was arrested in late July but was only formally charged and admitted guilt in early October. The timing indicates that the advisor has been giving information for months to investigators, including about interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian contacts.

The FBI confirms in the records, “Following his arrest, defendant PAPADOPOULOS met with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions.”

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti summarizes:

In the 25-tweet thread, Mariotti explains, “Papadopoulos will be very important to Mueller because he can provide an inside look at the Trump campaign.”

The White House has tried to play down Papadopoulos’ importance. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that —
even though Trump said in March 2016 that the staff was one of his foreign policy advisors — Papadopoulos was an unimportant volunteer and never acted in an “official capacity” when he communicated with the Russians.

Sanders called him a “member of a volunteer advisory council that met one time over the course of a year”. However, contrary to her portrayal, Papadopoulos attended meetings of Trump’s “national security team” throughout spring 2016.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has surrendered himself to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the first indictment in the Trump-Russia investigation.

Manafort’s top aide Rick Gates has also been indicted.

The two men have been charged with money laundering and tax and foreign lobbying violations. Mueller said Manafort laundered more than $18 million to buy properties and services.

“Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income,” the indictment asserts.

Mr. Gates is accused of transferring more than $3 million from offshore accounts. The two are also charged with making false statements to authorities: “As part of the scheme, Manafort and Gates repeatedly provided false information to financial bookkeepers, tax accountants and legal counsel, among others.”

Manafort has been under investigation by the FBI and Mueller’s team for financial transactions going back more than a decade, some of them with Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainian entities. Reports circulated last month that Mueller was on the verge of submitted his indictment for approval by a Washington grand jury.

Gates also served on the Trump campaign and inaugural teams, but he was pushed aside in April as the Trump-Russia inquiry escalated.