George Papadopoulos, former campaign worker for embattled U.S President Donald Trump was arraigned on July 28,2017 after being stopped by the FBI the day before. The above audio speaks volumes.
First, Papadopoulos had no defense attorney. Typically, a public defender will stand in in such situations at least temporarily.
“That’s odd,” former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer said. “You would not normally have a defendant appearing before the court and not be represented. The court wasn’t concerned with it but that was strange.”
Second, Papadopoulos’ arrest seems to have been the product of some haste. Indeed, when he was arrested at Dulles Airport July 27 after coming off a flight from Munich, prosecutors had no warrant for him and no indictment or criminal complaint. The complaint would be filed the following morning and approved by Howell in Washington.
And when prosecutors filed the complaint the next day they got a verbal order from Howell to seal it, but followed up with a written request that they could take to the magistrate in Alexandria, where they showed up almost an hour later than she was expecting.
All of it suggests something of a scramble, rather than a carefully-prepared plan to take Papadopolous into custody.