Woman who sought ‘back channel’ for Trump, Putin is charged as Russian agent
WASHINGTON — A Russian woman who tried to broker a pair of secret meetings between candidate Donald Trump and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, during the 2016 presidential campaign, was charged Monday and accused of working with Americans to carry out a secret Russian effort to influence U.S. politics.
Working at the behest of a Russian government official and with help from an unidentified U.S. political operative, the woman, Mariia Butina, worked to infiltrate U.S. organizations as a way to secretly advance Russian interests, prosecutors said.
As part of that effort, she tried to establish “back channel” lines of communication with U.S. politicians, according to court records. “These lines could be used by the Russian Federation to penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus to advance the agenda of the Russian Federation,” an FBI agent wrote in court documents.
The charges were filed under seal Saturday, the day after 12 Russian intelligence officers were indicted by the Justice Department for hacking Democratic computers to interfere with the 2016 campaign. They were unsealed just hours after Trump stood beside Putin and said he saw no reason the Russian leader would try to influence the presidential election. Trump’s own intelligence chiefs have concluded otherwise.
Together, the indictments portray a multifaceted effort by Russia to sway the election through computer espionage, personal overtures and the assistance of U.S. intermediaries.
Butina twice tried to set up meetings between Trump and Putin in 2016. The charges announced Monday do not name Trump, but they make clear that Butina’s overtures were part of a carefully crafted Russian intelligence operation.
Prosecutors said an unidentified U.S. operative helped Butina identify political, media and business officials to target. Butina met the operative in Moscow, prosecutors said. Quoting from emails, prosecutors laid out the most explicit evidence to date that at least one American was knowingly involved in the Russian influence effort.
Though the U.S. operative is not identified, The New York Times has previously reported that Butina developed a close relationship with Paul Erickson, an NRA member and longtime conservative activist who was part of the effort to arrange a meeting between Putin and Trump. Butina has publicly described hosting Erickson at an event in Moscow.
Prosecutors said that, among the organizations that Butina infiltrated was a U.S. gunrights organization. The Times has previously reported Butina established deep ties to the National Rifle Association and tried to use that organization to help broker meetings with U.S. political leaders, including Trump and members of his campaign.