Book excerpt: The former advisor to President Trump shares an insider account of the investigation into Russian collusion in a memoir that “unfolds like a spy thriller” (Publishers Weekly). As a young, ambitious foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, George Papadopoulos became the first Trump official to plead guilty in special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He then became the first campaign advisor sentenced to prison. But as he explains in Deep State Target, there was an intricate set up at play, and it was neither Trump nor the Russians pulling the strings. American and allied intelligence services set out to destroy a Trump presidency before it even started. Here, Papadopoulos gives the play-by-play of how operatives like Professor Joseph Mifsud, Sergei Millian, Alexander Downer, and Stefan Halper worked to invent a Russian conspiracy that would irreparably damage the Trump administration. Papadopoulos was there: In secret meetings across the globe, on city streets being tailed by agents, and ultimately being interrogated by Mueller’s team and agreeing to a guilty plea.