As a co-chair of the Trump presidential campaign, Sam Clovis handled emails from foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who tried from April to August 2016 to arrange a meeting between the campaign and the Russian government and has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about it. According to one report, Clovis is the unnamed “Campaign Supervisor” cited in court documents who told Papadopoulous in mid-August, “I would encourage you” to make an off-the-record trip to Russia.
A USDA official was not immediately available for comment. Clovis is the White House nominee for USDA chief scientist. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed an all-out fight against Clovis and urged the administration to withdraw the nomination. Critics say Clovis is a climate-change denier who made racially inflammatory statements and questioned the constitutionality of crop insurance while running a political talk show and as a political candidate. Aides to Senate Agriculture Committee leaders were not immediately available for comment. A confirmation hearing for Clovis has not been scheduled.
Papadopoulos told campaign officials in April 2016 that a Russian professor said that his government had “dirt” on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, including “thousands of emails.” The 14-page “statement of offense” filed by special counsel Robert Mueller says Papadopoulos corresponded for weeks with a “high ranking campaign official” and the campaign supervisor about potential meetings that could include Russian Foreign Ministry officials or members of President Putin’s office. In June, Papadopoulos said he was willing to meet Foreign Ministry officials “off the record if it’s in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people.”
Around Aug. 15, “the Campaign Supervisor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS that ‘I would encourage you’ and another foreign policy advisor to the Campaign to ‘make the trip, if it is feasible,” said the court document. The trip never took place.
Yahoo News said a Trump campaign source “identified the supervisor as Sam Clovis, a conservative radio host who was co-chairman of the campaign.”
The Washington Post reported in August that Clovis advised caution and consultation with allies when Papadapoulos offered in March 2016 to set up a meeting between the campaign and Russian officials including Putin “to discuss U.S.-Russia times under President Trump.” The emails “appear to have generated more concern than excitement within the campaign,” whose first priority was to seal the GOP nomination, said the Post. In reply to one proposed meeting, Clovis wrote on March 24, “We thought we probably should not go forward with any meeting with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with out NATO allies,” reported the Post.
Campaign chairman Paul Manafort rejected a later suggestion by Papadopoulus for Trump to travel to Moscow in a note to an associate, saying, “We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips.” But Manafort was among top-tier campaign officials who met “a Russian lawyer who has connections to the Kremlin” in June 2016 in Trump Tower, said the New York Times.
To read the Justice Department statement of offense, click here.