Alleged Russian agent ordered to remain in custody
U.S. prosecutors argue woman has ties to Kremlin operatives
The Russian woman arrested this week on charges of being a foreign agent has ties to Russian intelligence operatives and was in contact with them while in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Maria Butina, 29, was also engaged in a “personal relationship” with an American Republican consultant only for business purposes and had offered sex to at least one other person “in exchange for a position within a special interest organization.”
After a hearing on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson denied Butina’s request to be released on bail, finding that no combination of conditions would assure her return to court.
Prosecutors had argued strongly against her release, noting “her history of deceptive conduct.” They said Butina could slip into a Russian embassy or a Russian diplomatic vehicle and get out of the country, and had connections with wealthy business executives linked to the Putin administration.
When she was arrested Sunday, she appeared to be planning to leave Washington and possibly the United States, they said: her apartment was full of moving boxes and she had transferred money to Russia in recent days.
The new allegations laid out Wednesday explicitly link Butina to Russia’s intelligence services for the first time, painting the portrait of a covert agent backed by powerful patrons who went to lengths to create a pretext for her presence in the U.S.
The details about her alleged activities injected even more drama into the case of the Russian gun rights activist, who in recent years cozied up to top U.S. conservatives, including the leadership of the National Rifle Association.
In a court filing that could have been ripped from the television show The Americans, prosecutors decribed her manipulating a South Dakota political operative as part of her scheme and meeting for a private lunch in March with a Russian diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence officer — all while FBI agents watched.
Butina, who came to the U.S. on a student visa in August 2016 to study at American University, was charged with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and failing to register as an agent of a foreign government. Prosecutors say she worked to infiltrate American conservative groups to advance the Kremlin’s interests.
Through her attorney, Robert Driscoll, Butina pleaded not guilty at the hearing Wednesday. He has said she was not a Russian agent, but a student interested in forming bonds with Americans.
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called Butina’s arrest alarming, saying it was aimed at undermining the outcomes of this week’s meeting in Helsinki between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.