'Trump mentioned him himself': Shep Smith blows up White House's attempt to downplay guilty Russia-linked aide

Fox News host Shep Smith criticized the White House's attempt to distance itself from a foreign policy advisor who plead guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling.

"The former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign admits he lies to the feds about his contacts with the Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton," Smith said.

It was revealed Monday that former Trump advisor George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents.

"They are really downplaying the foreign policy advisor," Smith told his guest, the Wall Street Journal's John Bussey. "Unpaid and all of that."

"It was March of 2016 that President Trump mentioned him himself, said 'an oil guy, great guy.' It was April of 2016 that these conversations with the professor regarding Russia began. So one happened in March, the next happened in April. It's going to be hard for them to downplay him," Shep said.

Bussey agreed.

"There were e-mails back and forth between him and campaign officials," Bussey noted, "talking about what you just described, which were his meetings with this Russian who was saying, 'look, we can get you information on Hillary Clinton, we want to understand a little bit more about where Donald Trump is growing to be on Russia, let's organize some meetings.'"

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