Donald Trump claims 'few people knew' campaign aide George Papadopoulos who admitted lying to FBI - despite having called him an 'excellent guy'

Donald Trump has claimed "few people knew" George Papadopoulos - the member of his campaign team who admitted lying to the FBI about contact with Russia - despite having described him as an "excellent guy" in March last year.

Repeating the line used by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that Mr Papadopoulos was a "low level volunteer" for the campaign, Mr Trump also made clear that Congress should "Check the DEMS!"

The suggestion that "few people knew" Mr Papadopoulos is further undermined by the fact that the foreign policy aide attended a meeting of then-candidate Trump's national security team in March 2016 and is pictured a few seats away from Mr Trump.

Mr Papadopoulos has found himself thrust into the centre of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, providing the most explicit evidence connecting Mr Trump's campaign team to alleged intermediaries for Russia's government.

Mr Papadopoulos was approached by people claiming ties to Russia and offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, according to court documents. Mr Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about the conversations and has been cooperating with investigators, the documents said.

“The Russians had emails of Clinton,” Mr Papadopoulos was told by an unnamed Russian professor during a breakfast meeting at a London hotel in April 2016. US investigators said that the following day, Mr Papadopoulos then emailed a Trump campaign policy adviser, “Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.”

Mr Papadopoulos was arrested in July and has been interviewed repeatedly by authorities, the filing said. After entering his guilty plea he was ordered not to contact other Trump officials and prohibited from foreign travel. In one of the unsealed files, an FBI agent working for Mr Mueller bluntly hinted that more former Trump associates could soon be questioned.

Mr Papadopoulos' lawyer, Thomas M. Breen, based in Chicago, declined to comment on the guilty plea but noted that “we will have the opportunity to comment on George's involvement when called upon by the court at a later date. We look forward to telling all of the details of George's story at that time.”

The release of Mr Papadopoulos' plea deal came the same day Paul Manafort, Mr Trump's ex-campaign manager, and Rick Gates, a close associate of Mr Manafort, were charged with money laundering as part of Mr Mueller's Russia investigation. Both individuals have pleaded "not guilty".

Associated Press contributed to this report