George Papadopoulos may be able to put his two-week jail sentence to use.
The former aide to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign has reached out to major publishers about signing a book deal, according to multiple sources familiar with Papadopoulos’ pitch efforts.
Earlier this month, Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in jail and fined nearly $10,000 for lying to the FBI during interviews about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 election.
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Just days later, his representatives set up meetings with publishers in New York to pitch the idea of Papadopoulos writing a book with a pro-Trump slant criticizing the FBI agents investigating Russian interference in the election.
Papadopoulos is represented by David Vigliano’s agency, which largely focuses on entertainment-industry books but has also repped books by some pro-Trump personalities including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro.
While Trump has described Papadopoulos as a relatively insignificant member of his campaign—Team Trump referred to him as “low level” and a “coffee boy” following his indictment—the former foreign-policy aide has been an unlikely key figure in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Papadopoulos’ disclosure to an Australian diplomat in 2016 that the Russians may have dirt on Hillary Clinton was one of the key tips that led the FBI to open an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the campaign. Prosecutors became further enraged with Papadopoulos in 2017 when they claimed his lies to the FBI inadvertently hampered the agency from arresting a potential suspect.
In recent weeks, the former Trump aide has broken his silence and granted a series of interviews to national media outlets in order to explain his recollections of what he knew about the leaked Clinton emails, and why he lied to the FBI. Papadopoulos heavily implied—without evidence—that he was set up by Trump opponents to spill information to the Australian diplomat, leading the FBI to open its Russia probe.
“I found myself pinned between the Department of Justice and the sitting president and having probing questions that I thought might incriminate the sitting president,” he told ABC News.
But despite his current situation, the Papadopoulos family clearly have had books on the brain.
Simona Papadopoulos, who married George earlier this year, told Law & Crime in March that the couple would “accept a million-dollar offer” to sell their story, and would be penning a book “about their romance.”
