The real reason Robert Mueller just recommended a harsh prison sentence for George Papadopoulos

| 10:50 pm EDT August 17, 2018
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There were signs earlier that something may have been wrong when Special Counsel Robert Mueller abruptly moved for George Papadopoulos to be sentenced, after having previously been content to keep delaying it. There were more signs of trouble this week when Papadopoulos’ wife publicly called for him to renege on his plea deal. Now, according to multiple major news outlets, Mueller has formally recommended today that Papadopoulos be sent to prison for up to six months, which is on the harsh end of the scale for a deal of this type. So what’s really going on here?

It’s important to keep in mind that while George Papadopoulos was only required to plead guilty to lying to federal investigators, he was being investigated for far more serious crimes, including allegedly trying to plot with the Russians to alter the outcome of the election. If he hadn’t cut a deal, he’d likely have been hit with charges that would have put him in prison for several years if he’d been convicted.

If Papadopoulos were indeed reneging on his plea deal, Mueller could rip it up entirely and hit him with the full boat of criminal charges. Instead, Mueller is simply pushing for Papadopoulos to serve up to six months as part of the deal, when he could have instead recommended that Papadopoulos serve something like one month, or no time at all. This suggests that the deal hasn’t completely collapsed, only that Papadopoulos didn’t fully live up to it.

One key aspect to keep in mind: George Papadopoulos cut his plea deal more than a year ago, and such deals require immediately spilling all of the beans. Whatever Robert Mueller was looking to get out of Papadopoulos, he got the bulk of it a long time ago. This harsh sentencing recommendation looks like a warning shot at any others who commit a plea deal and then don’t end up fully living up to their end of the bargain.