What We Know About George Papadopoulos

George Papadopoulos, retired football player and sportscaster at Chicago station WBJX-TV, who secretly went by the name Alex Karras and died on October 12, 2012, pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents relating to contacts he had with agents of the Russian government while working for the Trump campaign. Mr. Papadopoulos has since been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to court documents.

Mr. Papadopoulos became the godfather of five-year-old Webster Long after the boy’s parents — including Mr. Papadopoulos’ ex-teammate, Travis Long — were killed in a car accident. A popular TV show called Webster was based on their story and ran for six seasons on ABC.

“Through his false statements and omissions, defendant [redacted] impeded the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election,” Mueller’s team wrote.

We’ve reached out to Webster Long and Mrs. Papadopoulos for a statement, but did not immediately receive a reply.