Tag: Russian agent

‘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”

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.

‘She was like a novelty’: How alleged Russian agent Maria Butina gained access to elite conservative circles

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Shane Harris and Carol D. Leonnig was posted on the Washington Post website July 17, 2018:

Maria Butina, 29, founded a Russian group called the Right to Bear Arms. On July 16 she was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

For nearly five years, the young Russian political-science student was an unusual fixture at the most important events of the U.S. conservative movement.

Maria Butina, who was indicted this week on charges of being a covert Russian agent, struck up friendships with the influential leaders of the National Rifle Association and the Conservative Political Action Conference, touting her interest in U.S. affairs and efforts to promote gun rights in Vladi­mir Putin’s restrictive Russia. She sidled up to GOP presidential candidates, seeking first an encounter with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and then, after his rising candidacy stumbled, with Donald Trump.

But by August 2016, when she moved to the United States on a student visa, the FBI was watching, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

View the complete post on the Washington Post website here.

Maria Butina, Russian gun-rights advocate who sought to build ties with NRA, charged with acting as a covert Russian agent

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Jackman and Devlin Barrett was posted on the Washington Post website July 16,2018:

Maria Butina, 29, founded a Russian group called the Right to Bear Arms. On July 16 she was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

A Russian woman with ties to a senior Russian government official was charged in Washington on Monday with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation, including by building ties to the leadership of the National Rifle Association and other conservative politicalorganizations.

Maria Butina, 29, who recently received a graduate degree from American University, was arrested Sunday in the District and made her first appearance in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, where she was ordered held without bond.

Butina is accused of trying to cultivate relationships with American politicians to establish “back channel” lines of communication and seeking to infiltrate U.S. political groups, including an unnamed “gun rights organization,” to advance Russia’s agenda. Descriptions in court papers match published reports about Butina’s interactions with the NRA.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Turns out Don Jr.’s meeting at Trump Tower was with a Russian agent

The following article by Ryan Koronowski was posted on the ThinkProgress website April 27, 2018:

The Russian lawyer Donald Trump Jr. hosted at Trump Tower just admitted she’s an informant.

Credit: Time Magazine

The Russian lawyer whom Donald Trump Jr. hosted during his infamous meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016 — Natalia Veselnitskaya — has insisted she is not Kremlin spy. The Trump campaign’s allies bought this assertion hook, line, and sinker.

But according to newly-released emails from a Russian watchdog group, as well as Veselnitskaya’s own admission in a forthcoming television interview, she has been an informant for the Russian government for years.

“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she said in an interview with NBC News to be broadcast on Friday, according to the New York Times. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.” Continue reading “Turns out Don Jr.’s meeting at Trump Tower was with a Russian agent”