The idea that Papadopoulos was the trigger for the investigation was absurd. He did nothing that would trigger a counter espionage investigation.
Read what he pled guilty to. It’s ridiculous. He pled guilty first to lying about the date on which he met with a British professor to discuss the Russians. Mind you he did not lie about having the meeting. He just lied about the date of the meeting. I think most people would say that the idea that he would lie about the date of the meeting is not credible. More likely he made a mistake. Second he lied about the date on which he made a phone call to the Russian embassy to set up a meeting between Russian diplomats and the Trump campaign, and other details concerning the phone call like how long it lasted etc. The meeting never happened because the Trump campaign nixed it but Papadopoulos was charged with lying about those details concerning the call. Not with committing any crime in connection with what they were investigating.
Then they wired Papadopoulos. And the wire produced nothing.
Amen. Recent articles have presented the case for the “British professor” being a British asset, with photos of him being chummy with Britain’s head of counterintelligence. Things like that can be faked or misleading, but it seemed pretty credible. The FBI certainly were well-informed about details and times of P’s activities before talking to him. Papadopoulos was a tool, whether witting or witless, used to make a run at Trump. But whose tool and at what stage of the game? What individuals were directing the operation?