Butina has inked an agreement with prosecutors and becomes the first Russian since the 2016 election to confess to a crime connected to efforts to influence American politics.
By Betsy Woodruff
Maria Butina, a Russian national who cultivated relationships with
powerful American conservative activists, agreed Monday to plead guilty
to conspiring to violate laws prohibiting covert foreign agents. As part
of her agreement, which was reviewed by The Daily Beast, she has
promised to cooperate with American law enforcement.
As a result
of the deal, Butina will become the first Russian national since the
2016 election to plead guilty to a crime connected to efforts to
influence American politics. After running a gun rights organization in
Russia, she moved to the United States, where she spent years building
relationships with conservatives in hopes of influencing a future
Republican presidential administration. During the campaign season, she
questioned then-candidate Donald Trump about sanctions; built
relationships in the upper echelons of the American gun rights
community; arranged for NRA leaders to travel to Moscow; and bragged that she was a channel between Team Trump and the Kremlin, as The Daily Beast first revealed.
She also struck up a romance with Paul Erickson, a longtime Republican gadfly close to NRA leaders. He sang Disney songs with her on camera, called her his “Siberian princess” in emails reviewed by The Daily Beast, and—since her July arrest—has visited her regularly in jail.
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Source: The Daily Beast
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