Another Trump adviser behind bars: George Papadopoulos prison sentencing date has been set

| 6:04 pm EDT June 23, 2018
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It’s only been a week since Donald Trump’s campaign chairman was sent to jail for conspiring with a Russian spy to tamper with witnesses, and now another Trump adviser is in line to join him behind bars. Last month Special Counsel Robert Mueller made a court filing which revealed that he’s finished using George Papadopoulos as a cooperating witness, and he’s ready for Papadopoulos to be sentenced. Now we have a firm date.

Robert Mueller has asked the court to hold George Papadopoulos’ sentencing hearing on September 7th, according to new publicly available court filings. This hearing is going to tell us a few key things. First, we’ll find out how much prison time Mueller is seeking. When Papadopoulos cut his plea deal, he pleaded guilty to the least possible charge involving, lying to a federal investigator. Now we’ll see what Mueller is establishing as the baseline for the minimum amount of punishment for those Trump advisers who did the least wrong, and were the quickest to cooperate.

Various legal experts have predicted that Papadopoulos might get between one and six months behind bars. Various Trump advisers who didn’t participate in the Trump-Russia plot to begin with, but who have since committed crimes like obstruction of justice, will probably be watching closely. If they cut plea deals, they’re likely to end up with sentences similar to whatever Papadopoulos gets. Mueller could theoretically choose to let Papadopoulos avoid prison entirely. But when Mueller sent Trump-Russia attorney Alex van der Zwaan to prison for a month for misleading investigators, it seemed to send a signal that no one is fully getting off the hook.

Former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and Rick Gates have also pleaded guilty for their roles in the Trump-Russia scandal. Because they were higher ranking advisers and were therefore able to provide evidence and testimony against bigger fish, they’ll still be needed as cooperating witnesses for awhile. They won’t be sentenced for quite some time. Various experts believe they could end up getting four to six years in prison.