Tag: conservatives

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina poised to plead guilty in case involving suspected Kremlin attempts to influence NRA

Maria Butina, 30, is accused of working to push the Kremlin’s agenda in the United States. Credit: Civic Chamber of the Russian Federationm, EPA-EFE, Shutterstock

Maria Butina, a Russian gun rights activist, is poised to plead guilty in a case involving accusations that she was working as an agent for the Kremlin in the United States, according to a new court filing.

Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Butina jointly requested in court documents Monday that U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan set a time for Butina to withdraw her previous plea of not guilty.

“The parties have resolved this matter,” Butina’s attorneys and D.C.-based prosecutors wrote in their joint filing.

View the complete December 10 article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Spencer S. Hsu on The Washington Post website here.

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina ordered to remain in custody after prosecutors argue she has ties to Russian intelligence

The following article by Tom Jackman and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2018:

The Russian woman arrested this week on charges of being a foreign agent has ties to Russian intelligence operatives and was in contact with them while in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Maria Butina, 29, also cultivated a “personal relationship” with an American Republican consultant as part of her cover and offered sex to at least one other person “in exchange for a position within a special interest organization,” according to a court filing.

After a hearing on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson denied Butina’s request to be released on bail, finding that no combination of conditions would ensure her return to court.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment

The following article by Adam Liptak was posted on the New York Times website June 30, 2018:

Trump supporters signing a poster promoting free speech in 2017. Credit: Jim Wilson, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — On the final day of the Supreme Court term last week, Justice Elena Kagan sounded an alarm.

The court’s five conservative members, citing the First Amendment, had just dealt public unions a devastating blow. The day before, the same majority had used the First Amendment to reject a California lawrequiring religiously oriented “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide women with information about abortion.

Conservatives, said Justice Kagan, who is part of the court’s four-member liberal wing, were “weaponizing the First Amendment.”

View the complete article on the New York Times website.

Guns and religion: How American conservatives grew closer to Putin’s Russia

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website April 30, 2017:

President Trump’s warm rhetoric toward Russia on the campaign trail is just one instance of a softening stance toward Russia among some U.S. conservatives. The Post examined the relationship between gun rights advocates and religious conservatives in the U.S., and their counterparts in Russia. (Bastien Inzaurralde, Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Growing up in the 1980s, Brian Brown was taught to think of the communist Soviet Union as a dark and evil place.

But Brown, a leading opponent of same-sex marriage, said that in the past few years he has started meeting Russians at conferences on family issues and finding many kindred spirits. Continue reading “Guns and religion: How American conservatives grew closer to Putin’s Russia”

In echoes of 2009, Republicans see ‘Astroturf’ in Democratic protests

The following article by David Weigel was posted on the Washington Post website February 6, 2017:

Demonstrators protest outside City Hall in downtown Los Angeles after the election of President Trump. (Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters)

“Fox and Friends,” which for years counted Donald Trump as a regular call-in guest, has in recent weeks become a pillar of his defense. On Super Bowl weekend, the show’s hosts talked about how Trump’s friendship with New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was the sort of story he should tell more often, and how reasonable policies such as the travel and refugee bans were being badly spun. On Sunday, a “Fox and Friends” co-host asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer if “people are being paid to protest” the Trump administration. Continue reading “In echoes of 2009, Republicans see ‘Astroturf’ in Democratic protests”

Fresh cracks appear in Trump’s relationship with conservatives in Congress

The following article by Jame sHohmann and Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website January 27, 2017:

John McCain and Lindsey Graham read the newspaper yesterday as they wait for President Trump to speak at the annual congressional GOP retreat in Philadelphia. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)</p>

John McCain and Lindsey Graham read the newspaper yesterday as they wait for President Trump to speak at the annual congressional GOP retreat in Philadelphia. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

THE BIG IDEA: Tensions emerged underneath the bonhomie at the Republican retreat in Philadelphia.

Will Donald Trump coopt conservatives on Capitol Hill, or will he be coopted? This tug of war will be one of the most important storylines of 2017, and after a week of caving to the new president, there were glimmers yesterday that at least some principled conservatives in Congress will assert themselves after all.

The differences appeared on two issues that are definitional to modern conservatism: spending and trade. Continue reading “Fresh cracks appear in Trump’s relationship with conservatives in Congress”

Trump inspired a movement, all right

The following column by Eugene Robinson was posted on the Washington Post website January 23, 2017:

It matters that the crowd for the Women’s March on Washington was far bigger than that for President Trump’s inauguration. The new president often boasts of having started a great movement. Let it be the one that was born with Saturday’s massive protests.

If size is important, and apparently to Trump it is, there was no contest. The Metro transit system recorded 1,001,613 trips on the day of the protest, the second-heaviest ridership in history— surpassed only by ridership for President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. By contrast, just 570,557 trips were taken Friday, when Trump took the oath of office. Continue reading “Trump inspired a movement, all right”