George Papadopoulos asks for leniency ahead of sentencing (will be sentenced today)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/07/politics/george-papadopoulos-sentencing-hearing/index.html

He was barely qualified for his role as a foreign policy adviser in a campaign focused on improving relations with Russia, his lawyers wrote. A meeting he suggested between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during the campaign never happened. And he never realized the seriousness of a mysterious European professor telling him that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

Even when FBI agents first approached him at his mother's house in January last year, Papadopoulos didn't realize the conversation would turn to Russian interference in the presidential election.

Papadopoulos is set to be sentenced on Friday afternoon by Judge Randolph Moss in DC District Court for lying to investigators about his contact with individuals tied to Russia while they pursued more interactions with the campaign. With the sentence, the young man whom Trump administration officials called a "coffee boy" and whose family members have argued is caught in a spy conspiracy will become the first Trump campaign affiliate to have his criminal case reach its completion in the court system.

Papadopoulos has asked the judge for extreme leniency. He hopes to be excused from probation immediately after the sentencing because of the last 13 months he's spent since his arrest, his memo said.