the first Russian national to be arrested connected to 2016 election interference is now cooperating with the feds. think about that.
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what was she still doing here when she was arrested, back in july of 2018?
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illegal coordination between nra and trump campaign
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Paul Erickson sent a target letter
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Also, alleged quotes from plea agreement, from The Daily Beast.
More info here from Rachel Maddow:
A plea deal? For an innocent person?
“I think in some ways it’s a classic love story,” [her lawyer] Driscoll said in an interview with ABC News last week, which aired Tuesday on Good Morning America. “I think [reporters] are filling in a lot of the gaps with a lot of spy novels.”
Her original plea was……………...not guilty.
Probably time to reiterate, that back in 2015, Butina was the person who Trump called on, at a campaign event, to ask Donnie about those nasty sanctions.
“I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin” -Donald Trump
More on the plea deal & background:
Prosecutors and Maria Butina — a Russian national who’s been accused of being an unregistered foreign agent — requested Monday that a judge schedule a hearing this week so that Butina can change her plea. The filing was a suggestion that Butina and prosecutors may have reached a plea deal in the case.
[...]
The 30-year-old Butina was accused of seeking to infiltrate and influence Republican politics, and the party’s posture towards Russia, through her activism promoting gun rights. Her lawyers have maintained that she was merely a college student interested in learning about American politics.
She was romantically connected to a longtime GOP activist, Paul Erickson, who himself was reportedly told by prosecutors recently that he too may face charges similar to those brought against Butina.
She also met a number of prominent Republican politicians — even asking then-candidate Donald Trump a question at a 2015 town hall-style campaign event — and appeared in conservative media.
Also on Monday, Butina’s lawyers told the judge, U.S. District Tanya Chutkan, that they did not oppose the unsealing of a transcript from part of a teleconference she held with the parties last week. After the teleconference, which was mostly sealed off from the public, Chutkan appointed a public defender to serve as an “advisory counsel” to Butina. It is unclear why the public defender, A.J. Kramer, was appointed, but he will be present at the change-of-plea hearing the parties are requesting, they said on Monday.
www.theguardian.com/...
Senior members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) met the wife of the Russian billionaire who allegedly gave financial support to a woman accused of being a secret agent for Moscow in the US.
The NRA members met Svetlana Nikolaeva, who is the head of a gun company that supplies sniper rifles to the Russian military and intelligence services, during a trip to Moscow during the 2016 election campaign.
Nikolaeva’s husband, Konstantin Nikolaev, allegedly provided funding to Maria Butina, a young Russian woman charged with carrying out an illicit spying operation in Washington. Nikolaev reportedly once invested in his wife’s gun company.
The finding sheds further light on the links forged in recent years between America’s powerful gun lobby and well-connected Russians. US prosecutors allege Butina’s activities were directed by Alexander Torshin, a senior Russian state banker and an NRA member.
From irasdad at TPM:
"The filing was a suggestion that Butina and prosecutors may have reached a plea deal in the case."
The entire leadership of the NRA -- and half the GOP majority in Congress -- just browned its trousers.
("Dear G-d, if this brings down Mitch McConnell, I promise that I'll never swear again as long as I live.")
Yep,
Resolved matter + Remains in custody
=
Plea Deal
Monday, Dec 10, 2018 · 7:47:15 PM +00:00 · AlyoshaKaramazov
It just hit me (I’m dense): If the NRA, McConnell, Ryan, Lindsay et al thought Trump had no chance in hell of winning, then the whole NRA cash scam was for the money alone. Personal cash for election war-chests.
Then when Trump won, they ALL had to keep this shit under wraps, or they ALL go down. Hence the extra effort of Senate and House at keeping all Russia things quiet.
Is that about it?
