Key Mueller-probe figure: I was framed

After testifying to members of Congress on Thursday, George Papadopoulos, a key figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, said in a television interview Friday morning he has evidence he was framed.

"I believe there was tremendous misconduct on the government's behalf regarding my case," he said in an interview with "Fox and Friends."

Papadopoulos, who was a volunteer foreign adviser for the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, said that based on new information he learned from congressional investigators, which he can't publicly disclose, he is considering withdrawing his plea of guilty for lying to the FBI about his communications with a foreign professor who claimed the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

He served only one day of a two-week sentence, but he said he would press the case because of the precedent it set.

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Papadopoulos told "Fox and Friends" there was a misunderstanding that he was a Russia insider.

"I have absolutely no contacts whatsoever in Russia," he said. "I've never been to Russia. I have no Russian friends."

He said it's possible that the Obama administration saw a red flag because of his work as an energy consultant for Israel.

After Papadopoulos testified Thursday to members of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., noted to reporters that Papadopoulos is "the person who supposedly was the whole reason we have this Russian collusion investigation going on.

Meadows, one of three members in the session, said Papadopoulos was "very insistent that not only was there no collusion, but there was not even the opportunity for collusion, based on his contacts."

"There is even a greater confirmation, in my mind, that there was inappropriate behavior on behalf of the FBI and DOJ," the congressman said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Politico reported, reminded reporters of Papadopoulos' guilty plea, suggesting his testimony should be taken with a grain of salt.

'Completely orchestrated'

Papadopoulos said he became the focus of attention after he gave an interview to the Times of London in which he urged then-British Prime Minister David Cameron to back off on his criticism of President Trump's ban on visitors from certain terrorist-plagued nations.

"As soon as I gave that interview, that's when my life turned completely upside down," he said. "I was being followed in London. I had officials from the U.S. Embassy, which seemingly were intelligence officials, reaching out to me."

Papadopoulos said Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud then asked him for a meeting in Rome.

Mifsud, he said, told him that Russia had emails that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Mifsud has been cast by media as a Russian spy. But Papadopoulos believes Misfud's organization was a front for Western spies, and that the professor was used by the Obama administration to frame him.

"So the entire meeting with Joseph Mifsud, from beginning to end, seems completely orchestrated," he said.

Significantly, said Papadopoulos, Mifsud's lawyer stated only days ago that the narrative of his client as a Russian agent targeting Papadopoulos is completely wrong. Mifsud, the lawyer said, actually was working at the behest of the FBI.

George Papadopoulos

'Sting operation gone bad'

One week later, in May 2016, Australian Ambassador Alexander Downer, who gave millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, asked to meet, Papadopoulos said. It was at that meeting that Downer told him to tell Trump to stop bothering Cameron.

Downer has testified that Papadopoulos told him that Russia had dirt on Clinton, but Papadopoulos disputes the claim.

But even if he did say something about emails, Papadopoulos told Fox News, "it seems completely suspicious that a week or so after Josef Mifsud drops this information on me in London, unsolicited, Alexander Downer apparently wants to figure out info on this particular topic."

"It just seems that it was some sort of a sting operation gone bad, to be quite honest with you," he said.

'It makes absolutely no sense'

Downer informed the FBI of his conversation with Papadopoulos in July 2016.

But Papadopoulos wasn't questioned by the FBI until January 2017.

"It makes absolutely no sense that if Alexander Downer has this information about me, that I was some sort of Russian conspiracy person, why was I interviewed only in January of 2017?" he said.

Since then, he said, his "livelihood has been ruined," because his business was based on travel.

"How on earth could a man like me be at the center of a Russia conspiracy unless I was completely framed by Western intelligence, to make is seem that Papadopoulos was interacting with Russians, and that he's the patsy that started this whole investigation," he asked.

Papadopoulos said he believes the ultimate aim was to undermine President Trump.

He wants to testify publicly.

"I want to use this experience as part of my patriotic duty to really give back to this country, to expose corruption and to ensure that nothing like this never happens again to an American citizen," he said.