December 10, 2018

Accused Russian Spy Maria Butina May Be Ready to Cooperate

The 30-year-old gun rights activist and NRA associate has asked the judge for a key meeting.

AP Photo

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Accused Russian spy and gun rights activist Maria Butina wants to plead guilty in the case against her involving a Kremlin influence effort aimed at the 2016 election, according to a Monday morning court filing from her lawyers and the US government. The filing, which asks the judge to meet with lawyers in the case this week so Butina can change her plea from not guilty, is a sign she may be cooperating with prosecutors. 

The 30-year-old Butina was charged in July with working as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of the Kremlin. The indictment focused on her yearslong record of cultivating ties within the highest echelons of conservative politics, under the guidance of Putin-linked ex-politician and banker Alexander Torshin. Starting in 2013, Butina and Torshin built a network of connections within the National Rifle Association, aided by the Right to Bear Arms, a Russian gun rights group founded by Butina. The pair attended multiple NRA conventions and hosted top NRA officials on trips to Russia. 

The NRA went on to donate more than $30 million to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. The FBI and the Federal Elections Commission are now reportedly investigating whether any of this money came by way of Russian sources, which, like all other foreign entities, are prohibited from contributing to US elections. If Butina is cooperating, she may have knowledge that would be useful to advancing this investigation.

Before the 2016 election, Butina also repeatedly lobbied Republican officials, including Trump himself, at various political events for better relations with Russia. During a public Q&A at a conservative political gathering in Las Vegas in 2015, Butina asked then-candidate Trump a question about whether he planned to continue “damaging” sanctions on Russia. Trump assured her he didn’t think sanctions were necessary. If Butina is indeed cooperating with prosecutors, she will be able to shed light on whether her entreaties about Russian relations and sanctions throughout the conservative establishment were part of an official effort to advance Russian interests, one that may have included funds routed through the NRA. 

You can read today’s filing below: 

 



Butina Plea Hearing (Text)

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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