Papadopoulos considers withdrawing from plea deal with Mueller

Source: The Hill | October 26, 2018 | Morgan Chalfant

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos said Friday that he is considering withdrawing from his plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, repeating his assertion that he was set up by Western intelligence agencies.

“I believe there was tremendous misconduct on the government’s behalf regarding my case,” Papadopoulos said in an interview on Fox News. “Given certain information that I learned yesterday that I can’t publicly disclose right now, I’m actually even considering withdrawing my agreement I’ve come to with the government.”

Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser on the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty in October 2017 to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia-linked individuals. He agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation and was sentenced last month to 14 days in prison, after government prosecutors suggested his cooperation bore little fruit.

Legal analysts said it would be difficult, and likely impossible, for Papadopoulos to withdraw from his plea agreement at this stage, given that he has already pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

“If he is suggesting that he has the ability to withdraw from a guilty plea after he has been sentenced, I suspect he has not consulted a competent lawyer on that topic,” said Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor in D.C. who added that an individual can’t withdraw, “absent ineffective assistance of your counsel.”

He said withdrawing would mean proving the defense attorney had either defrauded the client or was “wildly incompetent.”

“That might be a basis to withdraw, but it’s a very strict test that the courts apply when they are entertaining a motion to withdraw a guilty plea,” Kirschner said. “Usually, it can’t be done after he has been sentenced.” 

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.

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