Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump

by George Papadopoulos

and told you’re facing twenty-five years in prison, you have other things on your mind besides food.

One day earlier, on July 27, 2017,

Unsure of his motives or associations, I had left the money with a lawyer

When I asked them what was going on, I got no answer. When I repeated my question, another agent sneered, “This is what happens when you work for Trump.”

“This is what happens when you work with Russians,” a G-man taunted me.

It’s hearing prosecutors say you are going to face twenty-five years in prison.

It’s realizing you’ve had a target on your back for more than a year—but having no idea why it’s there or who is aiming at you.

arrest. I realize that I misspoke to the FBI, but I wasn’t lying to hide anything other than an extremely irritating and embarrassing cat-and-mouse game.

now, let me just say that I talked dismissively about someone who I discovered to be a charlatan.

But I was wrong to not fully, accurately characterize my waste-of-time interactions with th...

That is what has taken time to unravel—to fully understand why there was a bullseye on my back.

I landed in a coveted position and suddenly found myself in a world filled with influence peddlers who seem to have stepped out of the pages of The Maltese Falcon and Jason Bourne novels.

Almost everyone I met—and I found this out much later—had ties to intelligence outfits.

Diplomats and academics recorded conversations with me. Businessmen offered me tens of thousands of dollars to work with them—witho...

I’ve been portrayed in the media, often by journalists who have never met me, as naive, self-deluded, ambitious, and a self-promoter. There is, I admit, an element of truth in all of that.

I also had faith in myself. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of placing too much faith in some of the people I came in contact with, and I’ve paid the price for being open and unguarded.

And in my line of work—consulting and facilitating collaborative energy partnerships—a little self-promotion is a necessity.

man. A guy set up to become the patsy in an international espionage conspiracy.

with others who are moved by a personality, not a policy.

I returned to Chicago to write my master of science thesis on the rise and fall of Islamist governments in the wake of the Arab Spring.

The paper, which was well received, would come in handy on a professional level when I later advised governments on the fall of Egyptian president Morsi and the rise of Field Marshal Sisi.

and working on articles relating to nuclear nonproliferation, NATO, and China relations with Taiwan now on my résumé,

Hudson Institute

America, for years, has given short-shrift to Greece and aligned itself with Turkey and Israel.

Israelis were found to be aiding Kurds—long a political problem for Turkey—in Iraq, along the Turkish border. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian activists, including the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, launched a flotilla of six ships intended to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, defying a blockade instituted by Israel and Egypt.

The Israeli Navy’s Flotilla 13 unit stormed one of the Turkish ships, the Mavi Marmara,

relations between Israel and Turkey hit a new low.

the recently discovered natural gas fields off the coast of the tiny nation’s Mediterranean coastline, later named “Leviathan” and “Tamar,” far exceeded earlier expectations.

It meant total energy independence for Israel and a new source of natural gas for the international market.

democracy. But that vision has become blurred. Erdoǧan is an Islamist.

He believes in Islamic law. For another, he has anti-democratic, strongman tendencies. His record for quashing opposition is well-documented. Despite these realities, President Obama’s administration continued working with Turkey.

Given all this, when I look at a map of the Mediterranean, I wonder why Israel, Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus aren’t viewed as a natural alliance?

Turkey, of course, has been seen as strategically vital because it controls the Bosporus Strait, which is where the Russian Navy would, theoretically, enter the Mediterranean via the Black Sea. But establishing a military presence with Greece and Cyprus would provide a substantial buffer for any Turkish delusions of grandeur in the area. As for funneling the natural gas from Israel to Turkey? Why give Turkey more strategic power?

I conclude that backing Turkey, despite its NATO membership, is not ideal for American or Israeli interests. I share my thoughts ...

Douglas Feith, the director of national security strategie...

My goal is to influence the most powerful conservatives in the country, to realign the thought process of politicians and analysts who’ve adored Turkey for so long and convince them that Erdoǧan’s Islamist anti-democratic stance is terrible for us and bad for Israel.

going to have to flip. One of them is the institute’s own Douglas Feith, who was former undersecretary for defense policy under Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz.

they were wrong about the effects of the Iraq War. They over-estimated the appeal of democracy in the Middle East and failed to see the power and appeal of Islamist leaders in that area of the world, many of whom shrewdly provided food and shelter to their communities at a time when those in power did not. Now, years later, these influential thinkers still believe our relationshi...

including economic attaché Eli Groner, who will later become the top aid to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—have committed to attending our conference along with delegations from Greece and Cyprus. It would be the first time in history that these three countries have met to discuss an alliance—at least publicly. At the mention of Israel,

and Turkey’s Drift Towards Authoritarianism and Islamism”;

I am correcting a misguided US policy that I believe threatens the security of the Western world.

dream.” By 2018, our ideas have become a reality; instead of the pipeline going from Israel to Turkey (via Cyprus), plans are underway to build connections to Egypt and Greece.

When Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood,

president of Egypt in June 2012, the most populous Muslim nation in the region was poised to be governed by the same Islamist group that shaped Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Obviously, Israel was unhappy with that development. Erdoǧan, on the other hand, was thrilled. He began to finance and arm Egypt, believing he had found his cohort in Morsi and envisioning a Muslim Brotherhood alliance that Turkey would lead. Egypt was in political, social, and economic tatters at the time. Turkey saw a vacuum emerge and wanted to fill it. For some reason, Obama seemed to cling to the idea that democracy had prevailed in Egypt and that somehow Egypt, Turkey, and Israel would all sing “Kumbaya” together—which was never going to happen. So he did not appreciate any attempt to isolate Turkey.

We also met the US ambassador to the island, John Koenig.

As I’ll share later, a former US ambassador told me the State Department didn’t like our paper at all. They didn’t like my next move either.

I get my first meeting with the military defense attaché for the US embassy in Athens. He wants to know who I am and what I’m doing.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, it never occurs to me that by doing something I saw as a positive—furthering security and stability for America by promoting a new Mediterranean alliance—I might be creating enemies. Chemistry and physics aren’t the only fields where every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. It happens in politics as well. I haven’t learned that lesson yet. When I do, I learn the hard way.

The Obama administration is pushing to develop a pipeline that would deliver these resources to Turkey for distribution throughout Europe. In keeping with my ambition to turn Greece into a closer ally, I push the idea of directing a pipeline there.

On June 16, 2015, I’m at the institute when Donald Trump announces his presidential campaign. I have a gut feeling about Trump at the time, and I announce to the office that I think he has a real chance. Everybody laughs at the idea. “No way,” say my beltway insider colleagues, guys who have lived and worked in D.C. for their whole lives. “He doesn’t have a prayer.”