If Mr. Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and is now a cooperating witness, was the improbable match that set off a blaze that has consumed the first year of the Trump administration, his saga is also a tale of the Trump campaign in miniature. He was brash, boastful and underqualified, yet he exceeded expectations. And, like the campaign itself, he proved to be a tantalizing target for a Russian influence operation.

The timeline here bears a little amplification:

December 2015: George Papadopoulos, a 28-year-old sometime-columnist and freelance flack at the Hudson Institute begins working for the Carson campaign

Early March 2016: Carson campaign folds, Trump campaign brings Papadopoulos onboard as a senior foreign policy advisor and given the mission of hooking up with the Russians

Mid-March 2016: Papadopoulos travels to Italy to meet with Joseph Mifsud, a "honorary professor" whose primary political experience has been lobbying Malta for Putin

Late March 2016: Mifsud introduces Papadopoulos to "Putin's niece" (not actually Putin's niece)

Late March: Papadopoulos, in a meeting with Trump, Sessions and others, says he can connect the Trump campaign with the Putin campaign. Sessions vehemently does not remember this.

Late April: Papadopoulos edits a Trump speech, impresses Mifsud and Stephen Miller, who also has no business in government

Late April: Mifsud tells Papadopoulos that Russia has thousands of DNC emails, a fact not known to the DNC, the FBI, or the CIA

Late April: Papadopoulos tells the Trump campaign via Stephen Miller that he had “interesting messages coming in from Moscow”.

May 4: Papadopoulos shits the bed in his first public outing as a Trump surrogate

"Early May:" Papadopoulos brags to the Australian ambassador to Britain about the emails while drunk at a wine bar

two fuckin' months on the job