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Maria Butina Sentenced for Role in Russian Influence Campaign Maria Butina Sentenced for Role in Russian Influence Campaign
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The Russian graduate student who ran a secret operation to influence conservative Americans was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison, ending what prosecutors called a lengthy effort to create inroads with officials potentially useful to Russia in the future. WASHINGTON — The Russian graduate student who tried to infiltrate conservative, influential Republican circles during the last presidential campaign was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison for serving as an unregistered Russian agent in the United States.
The woman, Maria Butina, 30, pleaded guilty late last year to conspiring to act as a foreign agent, admitting that she was part of an organized Russian effort to create unofficial lines of communication between Russia and influential Republicans. The student, Maria Butina, 30, pleaded guilty late last year to working on the Russian government’s behalf in the United States from 2015 to 2017 without registering with the Justice Department, as required.
Prosecutors initially described her as a charming operative who had traded sex for access to powerful conservative circles, including the National Rifle Association, though they later acknowledged being “mistaken” on the most salacious aspect of those accusations. Ms. Butina’s legal team said she was an ambitious, well-meaning graduate student who just wanted to improve relations between the United States and Russia. Her defense lawyers cast her as an ambitious, well-meaning young woman who hoped to foster better relations between the United States and Russia. In a tearful voice, Ms. Butina told Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, “I just didn’t register because I didn’t know to.”
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia accepted the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, saying Ms. Butina’s conduct “was a threat to our country’s democratic institutions.” She added, “This was no simple misunderstanding by an overeager foreign student.” But prosecutors argued that Ms. Butina forged links with National Rifle Association officials and other influential Republicans at the direction of a senior Russian official, aiming to create back channels of communication that could pay off if Republicans seized the White House. They said a senior Russian official directed her activities and shared some of her reports within the Russian government. A counterintelligence expert said her reports would have helped Russian intelligence “spot and assess” potential American recruits.
While Ms. Butina’s case did not arise from the special counsel’s investigation into Russia election interference, that inquiry hung over her case. Judge Chutkan noted that Ms. Butina was funneling Russia information about the American political situation at the same time that Russian intelligence operatives were waging a covert campaign to illegally influence the 2016 presidential race. Judge Chutkan accepted the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, calling Ms. Butina’s conduct “a threat to our country’s democratic institutions.”
In a court filing, Robert Anderson Jr. a retired F.B.I. counterintelligence official, said Ms. Butina was engaged in a typical “spot-and-assess” effort to identify Americans who could become targets for Russian intelligence. “This was no simple misunderstanding by an overeager foreign student,” she said. “The conduct was sophisticated and penetrated deep into political organizations.”
“Butina provided the Russian Federation with information that skilled intelligence officers can exploit for years and that may cause significant damage to the United States,” Mr. Anderson wrote. He said efforts like hers help Russians identify midlevel targets who lack direct access to classified or sensitive information but whose government or political connections could potentially be exploited. Ms. Butina, a gun-rights enthusiast, began what she called her “diplomacy project” to infiltrate the Republican political scene in early 2015. She attended N.R.A. conventions and arranged for prominent members of the group to travel to Moscow to meet Russian officials.
Erik Michael Kenerson, an assistant United States attorney, told the judge that while Ms. Butina did not transmit classified secrets, the information that the defendant funneled to Russia “had serious potential to harm the U.S. political process.” After obtaining a student’s visa in 2016 to study for a master’s at American University, she expanded her efforts. She met the governor of Wisconsin at the time, Scott Walker, on the day he announced his presidential bid; posed for a photo with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, at an N.R.A. dinner in 2016 in Louisville, Ky.; and questioned President Trump at a news conference in Las Vegas. In early 2017, she helped set up meetings for a Russian delegation to the high-profile National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.
Ms. Butina’s lawyers said she cooperated with prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and with Senate investigators scrutinizing Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election, including providing copies of her communications with Aleksandr P. Torshin, a Russian government official with whom she worked closely for years. Prosecutors said Ms. Butina strove to set up unofficial lines of communications with American political figures at Mr. Torshin’s direction, and fed the information she collected to him. Ms. Butina reported to Alexsandr P. Torshin, then the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, who had been attending N.R.A. conventions in the United States since 2011. Prosecutors said her boyfriend, Paul Erickson, a longtime Republican operative, helped her build her network of political contacts.
In return for her cooperation, prosecutors said, they shaved six months off their recommended sentence. She will be given credit for the nine months she has already served — much if not all of it in solitary confinement — and deported once her prison time is up. While her case did not arise from the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, that inquiry hung over it. Judge Chutkan noted that Ms. Butina was funneling political reports to Russia at the same time that Russian intelligence operatives were waging a covert campaign to illegally influence the 2016 race.
Her defense team had argued for probation, saying Ms. Butina was guilty of a crime of ignorance in failing to register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent. Her case also caused reverberations in Moscow. The Russian Embassy claimed she was falsely accused. After she pleaded guilty in December, an American businessman was arrested on espionage charges at an upscale Moscow hotel in what some American lawmakers suggested was a retaliatory move. The businessman, Paul Whelan, is being held in solitary confinement in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison.
“Nothing about Maria has been secret,” one of her lawyers, Alfred Carry, said. “Her agenda was better relations with the United States.” Robert Driscoll, another defense lawyer, said the government’s expert “did not name anyone who was spotted or assessed” by Ms. Butina. Erik Michael Kenerson, an assistant United States attorney, said that although Ms. Butina did not seek to obtain or transmit any classified information, her case “really shows how easy it can be for a foreign government to target individuals in the United States.”
In a tearful voice, Ms. Butina told the judge that she never intended to harm the American political process. In a statement filed in court by the prosecution, Robert Anderson Jr., a retired F.B.I. counterintelligence official, said he believed that Ms. Butina was a part of a “spot and assess” Russian intelligence operation aimed at identifying Americans who later might be susceptible to recruitment efforts.
“The United States has always been kind to me,” she said. “I just didn’t register because I didn’t know to.” “Butina provided the Russian Federation with information that skilled intelligence officers can exploit for years and that may cause significant damage to the United States,” Mr. Anderson wrote. He said efforts like hers helped Russians identify midlevel targets who lacked direct access to classified or sensitive information but had government or political connections that might later prove valuable.
Ms. Butina’s lawyers said she cooperated with prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and with Senate investigators scrutinizing Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election, including providing copies of her communications with Mr. Torshin.
In return for her cooperation, prosecutors said, they shaved six months off their recommended sentence. She will be given credit for the nine months she has already served — much of it in solitary confinement — and deported once her prison term ends.
Ms. Butina, clad in a green inmate’s jumpsuit, told the judge that she never intended to harm the American political process, but was a victim of her own ignorance of the law. “The United States has always been kind to me,” she said.
Her defense team had argued for probation, saying Ms. Butina was not accused of espionage or any crime other than failing to register with the Justice Department. “Nothing about Maria has been secret,” said one of her lawyers, Alfred Carry.
He sought to distinguish her from Russians who carried out the Kremlin’s plan to interfere in the 2016 race. While “we feel wronged and we should feel wronged about the attacks on our democracy,” he said, “she is not a proxy for the Russian government.”
Robert Driscoll, another defense lawyer, said the government’s expert “did not name anyone who was spotted or assessed” by Ms. Butina. “Anyone who thinks that someone who wasn’t Russian would be in this situation is fooling themselves,” he said.