--- title: What Mueller Indictments Mean for Trump Impeachment Charges description: Harvard law professor and 'Impeachment' author Cass Sunstein offers an analysis of George Papadopoulos's guilty plea canonical: https://time.com/5003822/cass-sunstein-impeachment/ author: Cass Sunstein article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-31T17:02:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:09.866Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Seeking 'Dirt' From Foreign Powers Is an Impeachable Offense og:description: If a candidate did what George Papadopoulos has confessed to... og:url: https://time.com/5003822/cass-sunstein-impeachment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f440a21e2a59e20/6988e3fcbc6cfc4ec33e3bd2/george-papadopolous-russia-investigation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4138 og:image:height: 2328 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-RUSSIA-PROBE-PAPADOPOULOS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Seeking 'Dirt' From Foreign Powers Is an Impeachable Offense twitter:description: If a candidate did what George Papadopoulos has confessed to... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f440a21e2a59e20/6988e3fcbc6cfc4ec33e3bd2/george-papadopolous-russia-investigation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Seeking ‘Dirt’ from Foreign Powers Is an Impeachable Offense > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Delivers Remarks After Mueller Investigation Indictments [Watch (HLS stream): Sarah Huckabee Sanders Delivers Remarks After Mueller Investigation Indictments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8oIoYBKg.m3u8) (1:20)  _Published 2017-10-30. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered remarks following the indictments of multiple people connected to the Trump Campaign._ by [Cass Sunstein](https://time.com/author/cass-sunstein/) ## Cass Sunstein Oct 31, 2017 5:02 PM UTC  George Papadopoulos in London. The former Trump campaign aide and foreign policy adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Kremlin-related contacts, and more specifically on a Moscow-linked professor who was offering "dirt" on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton. George Papadopoulos in London. The former Trump campaign aide and foreign policy adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Kremlin-related contacts, and more specifically on a Moscow-linked professor who was offering "dirt" on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton. AFP/Getty Images by [Cass Sunstein](https://time.com/author/cass-sunstein/) ## Cass Sunstein Oct 31, 2017 5:02 PM UTC In the summer of 1787, the delegates to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia vigorously debated the question whether the president should be [impeachable](http://impeachment). [James Madison](http://time.com/4497184/constitution-day-james-madison-interview/), the wisest of them all, insisted that impeachable was “indispensable,” because the president “might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression.” But the most eloquent was George Mason: “Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice?” Mason feared “the man who has practised corruption & by that means procured his appointment in the first instance.” At the same time, the framers of the Constitution wanted to limit the occasions for impeachment. They sought to ensure that the president could not be impeached or removed from office merely because people disagreed with his decisions, or thought that he was foolish, reckless or otherwise doing a terrible job. The idea of “high crimes and misdemeanors” was meant to refer to egregious abuses or misuses of presidential power, such as violations of civil liberties (“oppression”) or corruption (“peculation”). From the standpoint of the founding generation, this week’s most concerning revelation was the guilty plea of [George Papadopoulos](http://time.com/5002832/george-papadopoulos-guilty-plea-indictment/). His guilty plea is for false statements to the FBI, which are bad enough. But the real problem is the sordid tale, elaborated in the statement of the offense, of a stream of contacts between a member of Donald Trump’s foreign policy team and the Russian government. In brief: In March 2016, Papadopoulos was named one of five foreign policy advisers with the campaign. Shortly thereafter, he met with two people, one of them a Russian national introduced “as a relative of Russian President [Vladimir Putin](http://time.com/4977670/vladimir-putin-puppy/) with connections to senior Russian government officials.” As a result, Papadopoulos developed extensive contacts with Russians and Russian officials. Eventually he learned that they had “dirt” on Secretary[ Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4996741/what-is-the-trump-dossier/) and “thousands of emails.” Numerous conversations followed after that point. In communications with the FBI, Papadopoulos falsely stated that these discussions occurred before he joined the campaign. In short, he lied. Viewed in light of the founding debates, Papadopoulos’ conduct was traitorous — the kind of conduct that would raise legitimate impeachment questions if it had been undertaken by a candidate personally. Recall George Mason’s words. No aspirant to high office, and no adviser to any such aspirant, should engage with Russian officials about how to obtain “dirt” on a political appointment. It is important to emphasize that at this time, there is no allegation, and no good reason to think, that Papadopoulos’ unexcellent adventure was coordinated in any way with Trump personally, or with the very highest levels of the campaign. Papadopoulos pled guilty; no one else has done so. But let’s not lose sight of a crucial fact. This foreign policy adviser did not merely make false statements of fact. He betrayed his country, as well as the generation who fought for it, and founded it. ## Transcript It's the clearest evidence yet of ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Again, there are no activities or official capacity, in which the Trump campaign was engaged in any of these activities. Most of them took place well before the campaign ever even existed. John. Sarah, can you just explain what George Papadopoulos' role with the campaign was? It was extremely limited, it was a volunteer position and again no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard. What about the outreach the news making the campaign official was to try to put together You mean that outreach that was repeatedly denied and pushed away and said Well yeah that's what I We're not gonna take any action on that. Can you explain what happen with his outreach? He reached out and nothing happened beyond that. Which I think shows one his level of importance in the campaign. And two shows what little role he had within coordinating anything officially for the campaign. What did the President think when you said he wanted to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin, and how did other people in the campaign react to that? I'm not sure that the President recalls specific details of the meeting. Again, it was a brief meeting that took place quite some time ago. 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