This calls for a cup of coffee.
Fresh out of prison, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos announced Friday he plans on running for Congress next election.
“It is true,” Papadopoulos tweeted. “I will be running for Congress in 2020, and I will win. Stay tuned.”
The 31-year-old politico — who was derided as a “coffee boy” by senior Trump campaign officials who sought to distance him from the President in light of his guilty plea — was released from prison last week after serving a 12-day sentence for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 election.
Papadopoulos told the Daily News he will run as a Republican and, while he hasn’t made a final decision, he said he’s looking to launch a congressional bid in one of the increasingly competitive Orange County districts outside Los Angeles.
“Not going to let a set up by western intel prevent me from running on a strong platform in 2020,” Papadopoulos told The News, referencing a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that he wasn’t actually in contact with Russian operatives in 2016, but rather was entrapped by U.S. and Australian intelligence agencies.
Papadopoulos sparked the first U.S. counterintelligence investigation into possible collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign after he met with a mysterious Kremlin-linked professor in London in March 2016.
The professor, Joseph Mifsud, had promised Papadopoulos “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of stolen emails. Months later, WikiLeaks began releasing emails stolen from Clinton’s campaign by Russian hackers.
Since leaving prison, Papadopoulos has sought to re-brand himself by announcing he’s writing a book entitled “Deep State Target.” He’s also working on a documentary about the travails he endured as a result of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
