Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed an answer Wednesday to George Papadopoulos' request that his two-week jail sentence not begin Monday as scheduled but rather be postponed until after the resolution of Andrew Miller's case.
Miller, a Roger Stone associate, is challenging the constitutionality of Mueller's appointment, and Papadopoulos wants to see how that resolves before doing time with the hope a judgment against Mueller then voids his guilty plea.
In a six-page reply filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Mueller’s prosecutors shredded Papadopoulos for trying to back his way out of his original guilty plea while noting point blank to the judge that there is “no pending appeal in this case” for him to even rule on.
The special counsel lawyers also described Papadopoulos’ initial crime of lying to the FBI about his interactions with a foreign professor who he knew had ties to the Russian government and a Russian female national. And they highlight the terms of the guilty plea, including an explicit agreement to waive his rights to challenge his sentence unless there was newly-discovered evidence or ineffective counsel.
Rehashing Papadopoulos’ own statements during his guilty plea hearing, the Mueller prosecutors reminded the court that the defendant had said he was “grateful for the opportunity [he] was given to assist in this investigation” and had “nothing but respect for the Court and the legal process.” Those comments led U.S. District Court Judge Randy Moss to give Papadopoulos a 14-day sentence, followed by 12 months of supervised release and a $9,500 fine.
Mueller’s team also quoted from a series of Papadopoulos’ since-deleted Twitter posts -- “Biggest regret? Pleading guilty[.]” he wrote on Nov. 9 — as well as media appearances where he had questioned his original decision and began signaling his plans to withdraw from the agreement with Mueller.
GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO CONTINUE BAIL
Mueller urges court to reject Papadopoulos' bid to delay his prison sentence (Politico)