A court in the District of Columbia on Friday sentenced George Papadopoulos, a former advisor to Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign, to 14 days in jail for lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was the first former Trump aide arrested in the investigation into an alleged Russian plot to influence the 2016 presidential elections.

In October, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the timings of his meetings with a Kremlin-linked professor. Papadopoulous had claimed the meetings took place before he began working for Trump, but later admitted this was not the case.

However, Friday’s sentence was much lesser than the six months the prosecution had requested for Papadopoulos, The Guardian reported. Lawyers for Papadopoulos had appealed for probation. “The president of the United States hindered this investigation more than George Papadopoulos ever did,” Papadopoulos lawyer Thomas Breen said in court.

But judge Randolph Moss said he wished to send a message about the serious nature of lying to the FBI. He also gave Papadopoulos a year of supervision, 200 hours of community service, and fined him $9,500 (Rs 6,85,000).

Papadopoulos is the second person to be sentenced to prison in the Russian investigation. The Dutch lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, was earlier sentenced to 30 days in prison. Former Trump campaign chairperson Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to fraud charges last month.