George Papadopoulos receives surprisingly short prison sentence after making new accusations against Donald Trump

| 4:52 pm EDT September 7, 2018
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The sentencing hearing for former Donald Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has just concluded, and in something of an unusual move, the judge has decided to send him to prison for fourteen days instead of the six months recommended by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. What stands out even more is the argument that Papadopoulos used today in order to convince the judge to go easy on him.

The defense attorney representing George Papadopoulos in these hearings, Thomas Breen, just told the judge that while Papadopoulos did initially lie to the FBI about his role in the Trump-Russia scandal, it was only because he was under the influence of Donald Trump. The attorney pointed to how Trump had already publicly attacked the investigation for being “fake news” and a “witch hunt,” which dictated the mindset that Papadopoulos took into his initial conversation with the FBI.

Then Papadopoulos’ attorney dropped a bomb directly on Donald Trump’s head. According to Los Angeles Times reporter Chris Megerian, the attorney said “The President of the United States hindered the investigation more than George Papadopolous ever could.” This is a big deal, because it means Papadopoulos’ legal defense strategy now officially centers around the assertion that Trump has been committing felony obstruction of justice all along.

So where does this go from here? There will be quite a bit of disappointment from the anti-Trump crowd, who wanted to see George Papadopoulos locked up for a longer amount of time. The pro-Trump crowd will argue that Papadopoulos shouldn’t have gone to prison at all. No one will be happy with this news. But while a minor player like Papadopoulos will soon disappear from the national stage and be forgotten, the lasting impact here will be the fact that he managed to get a much shorter prison sentence by telling a judge that it was all Trump’s fault. That could set a precedent for the rest of Trump’s alleged co-conspirators.