Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, who used her appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight to beg Donald Trump to pardon husband George Papadopoulos, is at least the third person to use Fox News as a means for a Trump pardon.
George Papadopoulos, you probably recall is currently awaiting sentencing for lying to the FBI. However, he was reportedly cooperating with the Mueller investigation and had reason to expect a lenient sentence.
Why Mrs. Papadopoulos now feels the need for a pardon is an intriguing question that host Tucker Carlson didn’t ask. Instead, Carlson began the interview with a deceptive, Trumpian announcement to viewers that the whole Russia investigation is a fraud.
CARLSON: After more than a year of wasted time on the fantasy of Russian collusion in the 2016 election, there’s still no evidence that any of it actually happened.
FACT CHECK: There has been ample evidence of collusion, we just don’t know the intent, as Rep. David Cicilline recently explained on Fox News.
Carlson somehow “forgot” about the infamous June, 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr., then Trump-campaign director Paul Manafort, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and Kremlin-connected Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. That’s the same meeting for which Trump Sr.’s legal team has admitted Daddy Trump had dictated a misleading explanation to the New York Times, despite the White House previously denying he had done so.
Carlson continued by giving Mangiante Papadopoulos’ request a stamp of approval, before she had even opened her mouth:
CARLSON: That doesn’t mean that lives haven’t been destroyed. Many have been, beginning with George Papadapoulos who, at the time, was a 28-year old unpaid advisor to the campaign. He later pled to a charge of making false statements to federal investigators looking into Russia.
When Mangiante Papadopoulos did speak, she put forth a Trumpy/Foxy “deep state” conspiracy-theory suggestion that former FBI Director James Comey had somehow framed her husband:
MANGIANTE PAPADEOPOULOS: I know he did not [collude]… and one of the reasons why I’m here tonight [is] to set the record straight about George, in particularly a response to James Comey statements on national TV recently in which he says that George tried actively to obtain emails on Hillary Clinton. This statement is completely false. George never had an interaction with Russians. He has never been to Russia either. He doesn’t speak Russian, never talked to Russian officials yet is apparently at the origin of the Russian investigation. This is quite paradoxical for me.
FACT CHECK: Papadopoulos’ wife was denying a lot of behavior Papadopoulos was not accused of. However, his behavior was quite suspect, as Think Progress lays out:
Papadopoulos has admitted to making contact with individuals who have ties to Russian officials, if not the officials themselves. Official documents also show that the former foreign policy adviser allegedly lobbied the Trump campaign to meet with Kremlin-linked individuals prior to the election. There is also no evidence to suggest that Papadopoulos was “set up” by Justice Department officials like James Comey, as Mangiante claims.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last October to lying to the FBI about his ties to Russian officials during the 2016 election. It was later revealed that, in March 2016, he had met with a Maltese professor who claimed to have “dirt” on Trump’s campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, in the form of “thousands of emails,” and that Papadopoulos had allegedly passed along that information during a drunken conversation with former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer in May 2016. That conversation was later the impetus for the current Russia investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Predictably, Carlson – who claims his show is the “sworn enemy” of “lying” and “group think” – did not reveal any of that to viewers.
Near the end of the interview, Magiante Papadeopoulos made her direct plea.
MANGIANTE PAPADOPOULOS: I know how much dedicated and committed he was in the Trump campaign. I know he did an excellent job. I know … because of this incident, his freedom is challenged and so I trust and I hope and I ask to President Trump to pardon him. I hope he will.
“Miss Papadopoulos, thank you very much for coming on,” Carlson said, in closing. “I appreciate it.”
I think we can now definitively claim that Fox is the go-to place for people seeking Trump pardons. In March, a lawyer credited his appearance on Fox & Friends for Trump’s pardon of Navy sailor Kristian Saucier. Recently, Rod Blagojevich’s wife, Patti suggested a “strong leader” such as Donald Trump could “right those wrongs” visited on her husband on the Justice with Judge Jeanine show. She also visited The Story with Martha MacCallum to make a similar plea.
Watch Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos use Fox News to appeal to Trump below, from the June 4, 2018 Tucker Carlson Tonight.