Tag: Maria Butina

Maria Butina, Russian Woman Who Admitted Being Kremlin ‘Secret Agent,’ Released From Prison

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — A Russian gun rights activist who admitted being a secret agent for the Kremlin and trying to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups while Donald Trump rose to power was released from federal prison on Friday, officials said.

Maria Butina left a low-security facility in Tallahassee, Florida and was placed in the custody of federal immigration authorities. She is expected to be immediately deported to Russia now that she has finished her 18-month sentence.

Butina pleaded guilty last December to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent. She admitted that she worked with a former Russian lawmaker to leverage contacts in the National Rifle Association to pursue back channels to American conservatives during the 2016 presidential campaign, when Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

View the October 25 article by Eric Tucker and Bobby Calvan from the Associated Press on the Time website here.

NRA acted as ‘foreign asset’ for Russia ahead of 2016 election: Senate report

AlterNet logoThe National Rifle Association acted as a “foreign asset” for Russia leading up to the 2016 election, according to a report by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee.An 18-month investigation into the NRA’s Russia ties by the committee’s minority staff, which reviewed more than 4,000 pages of NRA records, found that NRA leaders promised Russians access to U.S. officials in exchange for Russian business.

The probe found that NRA officials used the organization’s financial resources, which largely come from member dues, to curry favor with Aleksander Torshin, who was then an official at Russia’s Central Bank, and his deputy, convicted Russian spy Maria Butina.

The investigation found that former NRA president David Keene organized a trip to Russia — despite NRA denials that the trip was officially endorsed by the group — during which Butina and Torshin brought a delegation of NRA officials to Moscow. Keene set up the trip on the promise of business opportunities in Russia, including possible deals with a Russian gun manufacturer that was under U.S. sanctions, according to the report.

View the complete September 28 article by Igor Derysh from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

‘Vetting disaster’: Here are the details behind the mind-blowing connection between a former Pence security advisor and an admitted Russian agent

AlterNet logoMSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has had much to say this week about Republicans and the vetting process. And having chastised the GOP over domestic violence allegations involving former Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Maddow turned her attention to Vice President Mike Pence and another “vetting disaster” on Wednesday night — taking him to taskfor failing to vet his former national security advisor, Andrea L. Thompson (now serving as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs). Maddow noted that Thompson has had close relationships with admitted Russia agent Maria Butina as well as with Butina’s boyfriend, veteran GOP activist Paul Erickson — and that Thompson’s connection to Butina and Erickson was detailed by the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin in a June 19 report.

“The Marina Butina story is just nuts,” Maddow asserted, describing Butina’s connection to Russian government officials and her efforts to infiltrate and influence the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Republican Party in favor of Russia. Maddow, describing Rogin’s Post report, noted that in June 2017, Butina “turned up at the wedding of Mike Pence’s national advisor” — and Erickson “was officiating the wedding.” Continue reading “‘Vetting disaster’: Here are the details behind the mind-blowing connection between a former Pence security advisor and an admitted Russian agent”

Russian agent Butina sentenced to 18 months

A federal judge on Friday ordered Russian agent Maria Butina to serve 18 months in prison, the term demanded by federal prosecutors in the case.

Butina, who was arrested in 2018, had pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of the Russian government. She will get credit for nine months she has already served in prison.

Butina, dressed in a green prison uniform and wearing her long red hair down, had no visible reaction as she received her sentence.

View the complete April 26 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Butina sentencing to mark end of whirlwind Russian agent case

The case of Russian agent Maria Butina will come to a close Friday.

Butina, who was swept up in a national furor last year over her efforts to create unofficial channels of communication between Washington and Moscow, will be sentenced in a federal court in D.C. on Friday. She pleaded guilty in December to acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

The Russian national ultimately was not found to be connected to the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But her attempts to persuade American officials and prominent groups including the National Rifle Association (NRA) to act in Moscow’s interests raised questions about the breadth of Russia’s attempts to influence U.S. politics.

View the complete April 25 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Maria Butina acted as an ‘access agent’ recruiting willing Republicans — and she wasn’t alone: sentencing documents

On Friday, the government filed sentencing guidelines for Russian agent Maria Butina. Despite speculation that Butina’s connections with the NRA and Republican politicians might net her no more than a suspended sentence and a deportation back to Russia—where she can expect something of a hero’s welcome—the government instead asked for an 18-month sentence on a single count of conspiracy. They describe her as “not a spy in the traditional sense of trying to gain access to classified information to send back to her home country” but insist that Butina’s actions were “for the benefit of the Russian Federation, and those actions had the potential to damage the national security of the United States.”

The sentencing document details both Butina’s actions, how they compare to others sentenced for the same crime, and why the government is seeking a sentence solidly in the middle of the potential range. But appended to the sentencing guidelines is an addendum authored by the former head of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. And that addendum doesn’t just explain why Butina’s actions are significant, they provide a window into something that has so far gone almost without mention in the post-Mueller report period—the counterintelligence investigation of Russian actions. Continue reading “Maria Butina acted as an ‘access agent’ recruiting willing Republicans — and she wasn’t alone: sentencing documents”

Boyfriend of admitted Russian agent charged with fraud

A Facebook image shows Maria Butina, the girlfriend of Paul Erickson who pleaded guilty to infiltrating American politics as an undeclared Russian agent. Erickson has been indicted in South Dakota for an investment fraud scheme unrelated to her case. Obtained by The Washington Post

The American boyfriend of an admitted Russian influence agent has been indicted in South Dakota for what prosecutors say was an unrelated investment fraud scheme.

Paul Erickson became the subject of public interest after his girlfriend, Maria Butina, was charged last year and pleaded guilty to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate American conservative political circles as an undeclared agent for the Kremlin.

Butina, 30, agreed to cooperate with investigators as part of a plea deal that will probably see her sent back to her native Russia. According to her plea deal, Butina began acting on behalf of the Russian government in 2015 and continued her work after moving to the United States to attend graduate school at American University in 2016.

View the complete February 6 article by Devlin Barrett and Rosalind Helderman on The Washington Post website here.

Admitted Russian spy bragged about connecting Trump campaign to Putin

Maria Butina, Credit: Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, PA-EFE, Shutterstock

Maria Butina pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent years after she openly bragged about it.

Admitted agent of the Russian government Maria Butina previously bragged about connecting Trump’s presidential campaign to Russia.

Butina pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to act as a foreign agent on behalf of the Russian government.

In her plea the Russian admitted she was part of a conspiracy against the United States.

View the complete December 13 article by Oliver Willis on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Russian agent’s guilty plea intensifies spotlight on relationship with NRA

Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina developed bonds with conservative leaders during the 2016 campaign – culminating in outreach to then-candidate Trump. (Bastien Inzaurralde, Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The guilty plea Thursday of a woman accused of infiltrating the National Rifle Association on behalf of the Russian government has thrust the powerful conservative group into an uncomfortable spotlight as the organization appears to be facing declining donations and signs its fearsome political influence may be waning.

Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Russia, admitting that she worked for more than two years to forge relationships with conservative activists and leading Republicans in the United States.

One of Butina’s main targets was the NRA — a group she identified in a 2015 memo as an organization that “had influence over” the Republican Party, according to court filings. Her relationships with the group, she wrote, could be used as the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication to the next presidential administration.

View the complete December 13 article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Mchelle Ye Hee Lee on The Washington Post website here.

Alleged Russian agent Butina pleads guilty to engaging in conspiracy against US

Maria Butina, the 30-year-old Russian woman arrested and charged earlier this year with acting as an unregistered agent of the Russian government in the U.S., pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court after previously entering a plea of not guilty.

Butina admitted in the District Court for the District of Columbia that she and an American, known in court documents as “U.S. Person 1,” conspired with and acted under the direction of a Russian government official to establish unofficial lines of communications with people able to influence U.S. politics leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson said Butina sought to use those unofficial lines of communication for the benefit of the Russian Federation.

View the complete December 13 article by Lydia Wheeler on The Hill website here.