Maybe Mueller's team did "leaked it to the press to make George look like a bad guy and to start rumors many of which are propagating"
But they aren't propagating very far. The MSM didn't pick up on them, only the couple of anti-Mueller sites (Daily Caller and CTH), all the MSM are reporting that he's trying to get no jail time and considering withdrawing his guilty plea.
CTH says: "Papadopoulos was arrested at Dulles International Airport on a return trip from overseas on July 27, 2017"
Why? What for? Well the indictment says he was arrested for false statements that were made six months earlier in his interview in January.
The defendant, GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS, who served as a foreign policy advisor for the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump (the "Campaign"), made material false statements and material omissions during an interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI'.) that took place on January 27, 2017.
It's odd. So CTH's theory is that they were planning on arresting him for the money, but he didn't have it, so instead the decided to arrest him for the false statements.
CTH also asserts that they questioned him for many hours at this point. The plane arrived at 7:00 PM, he was booked at 1:45AM, almost 7 hours later.
Maybe there is not connection, the FBI had decided to arrest him for his false statements and were just waiting for him to return to the USA to do the arrest. That's certainly plausible.
But, given what CTH is reporting (the guy who gave him the money was a long time CIA asset), his theory is also plausible.
I think you are going a little hard on CTH.
> “It’s odd. So CTH’s theory is that they were planning on arresting him for the money, but he didn’t have it, so instead the decided to arrest him for the false statements.”
CTH’s theory is off. I like CTH but they wove the 10k into this when in reality it is far removed.
The 10k handoff and the admission of the 10k by George were much earlier in the year than the arrest at the airport in July 2017. Mueller’s minions had been grilling Papadopoulos before the arrest and his ‘cooperative’ testimony covered events both before and after he joined the Trump Campaign. They continued to grill him and then used his emails and call logs to trip him up on dates.
Papadopoulos is a young, then a gullible (not now) up and coming careerist in politics. He had no clue how dirty the game is played, now he knows. So he tried to impress them that he was honest, forthright, candid, and ‘on the USA team’. He did not realize they were looking to do him in as they went after Trump. He was steamrolled, left as road kill.
If Mueller or any of his dogs comes near me, friends are going to have to hold me back to stop from pummeling them into the pavement.