George Papadopoulos’ fiancee says he was more than ‘low-level volunteer’ for Trump

The fiancée of George Papadopoulos pushed back Friday against claims that he was merely a “low-level volunteer” as the White House has described.

“He never took any initiative, as far as I know, [that was] unauthorized,” Simona Mangiante told ABC News. “All the initiatives had [the] blessing of the campaign.”

Ms. Mangiante said she wanted to speak out in defense of Mr. Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to lying to the FBI in relation to his work as a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign. He has agreed to cooperate with investigators looking into possible collusion between Mr. Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.

Ms. Mangiante said her fiancé is “the first domino in the Russia investigation,” but believes he will be “on the right side of history.”