Papadopoulos's high-level contacts

The prospect of having a Greek American among US President Donald Trump's staff, even if he were to be just an aide in the broad sense of the term, provided a simple knee-jerk satisfaction and created expectations.

However, it very soon became evident that George Papadopoulos (the man who recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his efforts to connect the Trump camp with Russian officials who promised "dirt" on rival candidate Hillary Clinton) was trying to oversell himself. Compared to Reince Priebus (who had served for five years as chairman of the Republican National Committee and played a key part in Trump's election campaign before taking over as White House chief of staff), George Gigicos (who repeatedly appeared at Trump's side during the election race) or Michael Karloutsos (who was appointed deputy chief of protocol and acting chief, a key position in the...