Prosecutors admit mistake with Butina messages

U.S. prosecutors have acknowledged they misunderstood text messages they used to claim in court that a Russian woman traded sex for access and should be jailed pending trial on charges she was a foreign agent attempting to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and other American conservative groups.

The concession came in a late-night court filing Friday in which prosecutors said Maria Butina, 29, should stay in custody as a flight risk but wrote “the government’s understanding of this particular text conversation was mistaken.”

Prosecutors said she has deep ties to Russia and few connections to the United States. They also assert other materials and communications investigators uncovered throw doubt on Butina’s claim that she should be freed on bond because she has U.S. ties in her longtime relationship with Paul Erickson, a South Dakota-based Republican consultant she met in Moscow in 2013 and with whom she has been romantically linked.

“The government has enormous power to destroy lives and reputations through the criminal process,” Butina’s defense attorney, Robert Driscoll, said in a statement about the new court filing. “This is an unfortunate example of the misuse of that power. I’m glad the false allegation has been acknowledged, but it’s a hard bell to unring.”

Butina has pleaded not guilty after being indicted July 17 on charges of conspiracy to act and failing to register as an agent of a foreign government. Her defense said she was merely networking to develop relationships with Americans.

Butina’s attorneys and prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office of the District and Justice Department’s national security division are set to argue over bail and whether to impose a gag order in the case in a Monday afternoon hearing before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of Washington.

Driscoll argued in a filing last month that the allegation was a “sexist smear” that created the false impression Butina used sex as a spy tool.