--- title: George Papadopolous Posted an Old Photo on Twitter description: A week ago, Donald Trump's former foreign policy advisor, George Papadopolous, posted a photo of himself on Twitter. Here's why it was weird. canonical: https://time.com/5004085/george-papadopolous-twitter/ author: Pratheek Rebala article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-31T17:45:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:29:46.212Z article:section: Politics og:title: George Papadopolous Posted an Old Photo on Twitter and People Called Him Out og:description: But he may have had a reason og:url: https://time.com/5004085/george-papadopolous-twitter/ 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: George Papadopolous Posted an Old Photo on Twitter and People Called Him Out twitter:description: But he may have had a reason 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 ---  # George Papadopolous Posted an Old Photo on Twitter and People Called Him Out > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### 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 [Pratheek Rebala](https://time.com/author/pratheek-rebala/) and [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/) Oct 31, 2017 5:45 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 [Pratheek Rebala](https://time.com/author/pratheek-rebala/) and [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/) Oct 31, 2017 5:45 PM UTC A week ago, on October 25, Donald Trump’s [former foreign policy advisor](http://time.com/5002832/george-papadopoulos-guilty-plea-indictment/), George Papadopolous, appears to have posted a [photo of himself on Twitter](https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19) wearing a suit and standing the streets of London with the caption: “#business.” > [](https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/923078894634270720) There are two things that are weird about that post. First, we now know that less than three weeks before he posted that happy-go-lucky pic of himself, he [pleaded guilty](http://time.com/5002832/george-papadopoulos-guilty-plea-indictment/) to lying to federal agents in an investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election and become what called a “proactive cooperator” in the ongoing case. And second, that photo wasn’t even taken in 2017\. Or 2016\. Or maybe not even 2015, for that matter. Thanks to the great deductive powers of internet sleuths like [Aric Toler](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2017/10/31/new-george-papadopoulos-photograph-actually-years-old/) and [Alex Billig](https://twitter.com/alexjbillig/status/925334804727500800), we have pretty good reason to believe that the photo was actually taken sometime before May 2015. One major giveaway is that all the stuff in the background of the photo has changed in the intervening years. A close analysis of Google Street View, which provides time-stamped images of popular street scenes, indicates, for example, that the stickers on a light pole behind Papadopoulos in the photo were removed sometime between July 2014 and May 2015\. So if he was standing in front of _those_ stickers on _that_ pole, it definitely wasn’t in October 2017. Another red flag is that if you do a reverse Google Image Search of the photograph, it pops up in a [Romanian news article from September 30, 2016](http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-esential-21322891-consilierul-lui-donald-trump-politica-externa-trump-deschide-nou-capitol-relatia-rusia-nato-nesustenabil-daca-aliatii-nu-cheltuie-2-din-pib-aparare.htm). We don’t know why Papadopoulos posted the old picture. Maybe he wanted to present a positive image to everyone who he knew was going to be looking him up online. If that’s the case, it worked. 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