(AP Photo)
On December 13, Maria Butina, the Russian citizen arrested in July and accused of acting as a foreign agent within the US, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy.
According to reprots, she was accused of acting as a Russian agent to infiltrate the US National Rifle Association (NRA) lobby group which is linked to some of Republican politicians close to US President Donald Trump in order to sway US policy toward Moscow.
The New York Times reports (source):
As part of the deal, Ms. Butina admitted to being involved in an organized effort, backed by Russian officials, to open up unofficial lines of communication with influential Americans in the N.R.A. and in the Republican Party, and to win them over to the idea of Russia as a friend, not a foe.
Ms. Butina’s guilty plea now casts a spotlight on the Americans she worked with, including prominent members of the N.R.A. and her boyfriend, Paul Erickson, 56, a longtime Republican operative who ran Patrick J. Buchanan’s 1992 presidential campaign and who now faces accusations of fraud in three states. Officials have said federal investigators are examining what Mr. Erickson and others who helped Ms. Butina knew about her links to the Russian government.
Ms. Butina agreed to cooperate with the investigators as part of her deal. In exchange, she will most likely get a short prison term, or possibly be released after having already spent five months in jail. She will probably then be deported, according to court papers laying out the agreement.
At the hearing to change her plea on Thursday, the judge said Ms. Butina would remain in custody while she was cooperating with federal investigators. A hearing to consider when she should be sentenced was set for Feb. 12.
Yet even as prosecutors secured Ms. Butina’s conviction and cooperation, they faced questions about their initial portrayal of Ms. Butina as something like a character out of “Red Sparrow,” the spy thriller about a Russian femme fatale.
Prosecutors had already been forced to back off the most salacious accusations against Ms. Butina — that she used sex as spycraft — and acknowledged in court filings this week that she genuinely wanted a graduate degree, and was not simply posing as a student to live in the United States. They also dropped accusations of her being in contact with Russian intelligence agencies, and that she was only using Mr. Erickson to gain access to other influential Americans.
Ms. Butina’s lawyers had strenuously objected to the earlier portrayal of their client, and the plea deal was likely to provide her defenders with new fodder to argue that her activities look sinister only to those who see the world through the outdated lens of the Cold War. For all of the headline-grabbing talk of a flame-haired Russian spy seducing unwitting Americans that followed her arrest, they say, Ms. Butina hardly lived her life in the shadows.
Ho, so gross from Ms Butina, doing what is just allowed for Israelis.
Whatever keeps her out of the dungeon.
She had a choice: 20 years in prison, or ‘admit’… show trials and modern inquisition.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they lock her up for years anyway on bogus espionage charges, we are talking about the United States Government here…
In the American legal system all alleged criminals are guilty. If you plead not guilty, it annoys the judge who then doubles your sentence. Only 10% of criminal cases go to trial, the rest simply agree to be sent to the gulag, and that is the smart thing to do in America. Why people put their lives at risk by going to corrupt countries like the US is beyond me.
There is a more that Even Chance though that the US (political) judge will renege on the deal. for a light sentence.
She held out for five months, kept in isolation and denied basic care and dignity. Unlike China, Russia elected not to arrest an American on similiar trumped up charges. Only time will tell if that was a mistake but I’m guessing that China’s principle of two arrests for one is more likely to lead to a situation where Chinese nationals are far less likely to be detained on political warrants. We’ll see but Russia declining to provide state sanctioned backup means that it’s less likely that she was a Russian state agent and more likely she was here on her own time and initiative.
What Butina has confessed to would be considered diplomacy in a country that supports democratic ideals. Making friends is a crime?
“…to open up unofficial lines of communication with influential Americans… and to win them over to the idea of Russia as a friend, not a foe.”
Well, there’s your problem right there: undermining neocon foreign policy. I’m actually kind of surprised the psycho twins Bolton and Pompeo didn’t order the bone saw treatment for her.
As least they gave her a lawyer and were able to reach a plea agreement with Ms. Butina. In other words, the prosecution provided evidence to Ms Butina and her lawyers. That is completely different than how Russia treated the captured Ukrainian sailors after Russia fired on Ukrainian boats in international waters. They paraded the Ukrainian sailors in front of cameras and forced a confession just like a third world country.
Ukrainians were saboteurs and were caught. Too bad ,too sad!
No. It was actually the Russians that were the saboteurs – like of the 2003 agreement between Russia and Ukraine which gave free access to the Kersh Strait for Ukraine’s merchants and Navy (as well as Rusia’s).
Wrong! You have not done your homework or are a spoiler here. No one can send their armed forces or navy throuhpgh someone else’s waters without permission. That means advance warning with maps of proposed voyage and signing off of documents. Also the ukranazis did not reposnd to coastguard comms and behaved dangerously on the seas;all of which are not allowed by international law.
Do your homework or begone from here propagandist.
Ukraine did everything required by the 2003 agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Additionally, the Ukraine Navy boats were on their way back to Odesa when they were fired upon by the Russian Navy in international waters!
If she had any sense she would’ve claimed she was working for the Israelis… next thing you know she would’ve been elevated to VIP status.
Her lawyer should have conducted their conversation before cameras or officers so they could have asserted that cavity searches were not necessary. Court proceedings could have been expedited. She did well holding on for 5 months. But, if she confessed then that will still be more prison time.
Plea deals are extortion. Draconian indictments and the cost of defending oneself make plea deals looking the lesser evil. The advantage for the prosecutor is avoiding having to prove his case in court. The track record of Mueller when having to prove his case in court is best demonstrated when an indicted Russian company challenged Mueller in court. ‘Discovery’ by the defense proved to backfire on Mueller. The power of a prosecutor to play this plea deal con was also demonstrated in the Flynn case. Flynn was made to chose between accepting a plea deal by incriminating himself for what was not illegal and being bankrupted by the prosecutor forcing him to pay for his defense in a trial.
This is what a paid troll looks like…….
STIRI FALSE MINCIUNI PAPUSARI
Virtually every congressman in the good old USA signs an oath to support Israel through AIPAC. Hypocrisy must be a keystone of American jurisprudence.