--- title: Trump Says He Doesn't 'Remember Much' About Meeting With George Papadopoulos description: President Donald Trump told reporters that he doesn't "remember much" about meeting with George Papadopoulos in 2016. canonical: https://time.com/5008762/trump-george-papadopoulos-mueller/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-03T14:42:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:09.067Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Doesn't 'Remember Much' About Meeting With George Papadopoulos og:description: "It was a very unimportant meeting" og:url: https://time.com/5008762/trump-george-papadopoulos-mueller/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e49d094e77d0b7/6988e4788fd2ee367f3597f1/gettyimages-869761166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President And Mrs Trump Depart White House For 11-Day Trip To Asia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Doesn't 'Remember Much' About Meeting With George Papadopoulos twitter:description: "It was a very unimportant meeting" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e49d094e77d0b7/6988e4788fd2ee367f3597f1/gettyimages-869761166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Doesn't 'Remember Much' About Meeting With George Papadopoulos > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Nov 3, 2017 2:42 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media before he and first lady Melania Trump depart on Marine One on November 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media before he and first lady Melania Trump depart on Marine One on November 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Nov 3, 2017 2:42 PM UTC President Trump said he doesn’t “remember much” about meeting with a campaign adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn before leaving for a 12-day trip to Asia, Trump downplayed a meeting his campaign had which featured foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos in March of 2016\. Trump posted an image of the meeting on Instagram and Twitter at the time, noting that he was “meeting with my national security team.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/715725628465680386) But speaking Friday, Trump downplayed the meeting. “It was a very unimportant meeting,” he said, according to pool reports. “It took place a long time ago. Don’t remember much about it.” In recent days, Trump has dismissed Papadopoulos as a [“low-level volunteer”](http://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/papadopoulos-low-level-volunteer/) and a [“liar,”](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-rips-mueller-target-papadopoulos-liar-low-level-volunteer-n815946) while White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has argued that the one-time adviser’s contacts with Russians, which got him in trouble when he lied about them to investigators with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, were [“outside the scope of the campaign.”](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/30/politics/sarah-sanders-factcheck-indictment/index.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5008762/trump-george-papadopoulos-mueller/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5008762/trump-george-papadopoulos-mueller/"},"headline":"President Trump Doesn't 'Remember Much' About Meeting With George Papadopoulos","datePublished":"2017-11-03T14:42:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:09.067Z","description":"\"It was a very unimportant meeting\"","url":"https://time.com/5008762/trump-george-papadopoulos-mueller/","keywords":["Donald Trump","russia","2016 Election","onetime","Robert Mueller"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e49d094e77d0b7/6988e4788fd2ee367f3597f1/gettyimages-869761166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6e49d094e77d0b7/6988e4788fd2ee367f3597f1/gettyimages-869761166.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President And Mrs Trump Depart White House For 11-Day Trip To Asia","caption":"President And Mrs Trump Depart White House For 11-Day Trip To Asia","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5008762/trump-george-papadopoulos-mueller/","name":"President Trump Doesn't 'Remember Much' About Meeting With George Papadopoulos"}}]}] ```