Russian energy mogul backed suspected agent
Maria Butina, the Russian woman charged in federal court last week with acting as an unregistered agent of her government, received financial support from Konstantin Nikolaev, a Russian billionaire with investments in U.S. energy and technology companies, according to a person familiar with testimony she gave Senate investigators.
Butina told the Senate Intelligence Committee in April that Nikolaev provided funding for a gun rights group she represented, according to the person. A spokesman for Nikolaev confirmed that he was in contact with her as she was launching the progun rights group in Russia between 2012 and 2014. He declined to confirm whether Nikolaev he gave her financial support.
Nikolaev’s fortune has been built largely through port and railroad investments in Russia. He also sits on the board of American Ethane, a Houston eth- ane company that was showcased by President Donald Trump at an event in China last year, and is an investor in a Silicon Valley start-up.
Nikolaev has never met Trump, according to his spokesman.
However, Nikolaev’s son Andrey, who is studying in the United States, volun- teered in the 2016 campaign in support of Trump’s candidacy, according a person familiar with his activities. Konstantin Nikolaev was spotted at the Trump Inter- national Hotel in Washing- ton, D.C., during Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, according to two people familiar with his presence.
In a court filing last week, prosecutors said Butina’s emails and chat logs are full of references to a billionaire as the “funder” of her activities. They wrote that the billionaire is a “known Russian businessman with deep ties to the Russian Presidential Administration.”
Prosecutors did not identify Butina’s funder by name but said he travels often to the United States and was listed by Forbes this year as having a net worth of $1.2 billion — which is the same as Nikolaev’s current listing.
Butina was ordered held without bond last week after she was charged with con- spiring to work as a Russian agent. Prosecutors allege that she sought to meet GOP pol- iticians and infiltrate conser- vative organizations, including the National Rifle Asso- ciation, at the direction of a Russian government official, in an attempt to advance the Kremlin’s interests.
According to prosecutors, for two years, she traveled back and forth to the United States, often accompanying Russian central banker Alexander Torshin to NRA events and other political meetings. Prosecutors have said that her activities were directed by a high-level Russian gov-
Prosecutors cited accused Russian agent Maria Butina’s interactions with Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev to argue she should not be allowed out of jail while awaiting trial. They argued that she has“ties to the Russian oligarchy” and knows wealthy men who could be in a position to offer her“safe harbor”if she decided to flee the U.S.
Nikolaev last had contact with the Russian activist in 2014, according to his spokesman, who said that at the time, Butina had a “public profile in Russia as a blogger on key domestic issues that were of interest.” ernment official who matches the description of Torshin.
In August 2016, she came to Washington to study fulltime as a graduate student at American University.
Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, has said she is not a Russian agent but rather a student interested in learning about the American political system. The Russian government has proclaimed Buti- na’s innocence, promoting the hashtag #freeMariaButina on social media.
Russian Foreign Minis- ter Sergei Lavrov pressed Butina’s case with Secre- tary of State Mike Pompeo in a phone call Saturday, the Russian government said.
Driscoll said Nikolaev was a financial supporter of the gun-rights group Butina founded in Russia, the Right to Bear Arms. She met him in person only twice, he said. Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page has not been charged with a crime, but he has been interviewed by the FBI and congressional investigators about his ties to Russia.
White House officials have argued that Page, announced by the president in early 2016 as a foreign policy adviser, played only a minor role in the Trump campaign.
Another former campaign policy aide, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty last year to charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller alleging he had lied to the FBI about his Russia contacts. He is now cooperating with Mueller’s expansive probe. BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Donald Trump asserted evidence Sunday that newly released documents relating to the wiretapping of his onetime campaign adviser Carter Page “confirm with little doubt” that intelligence agencies misled the court that approved the warrant.
But lawmakers from both political parties said the documents don’t show wrongdoing and that they even appear to undermine some previous claims by top Republicans on the basis for obtaining a warrant against Page.
And Page said on CNN’s Nunes, R-Calif., and other “State of the Union”: “I’ve Republicans had said that never been the agent of a anti-Trump research in a foreign power.” dossier prepared by former
Visible portions of the British intelligence agent heavily redacted docu- Christopher Steele was used ments, released Saturday inappropriately to obtain the under the Freedom of Infor- warrant on Page. mation Act, show the FBI tellRepublicans’ criticism has ing the court that Page “has centered on the fact that the been collaborating and con- FBI used material from the spiring with the Russian govdossier without telling the ernment.” The agency also court that the Democratic told the court that “the FBI National Committee and the believes Page has been the Clinton campaign, by name, subject of targeted recruit- had funded the research. ment by the Russian govWhile the documents con- ernment.” firm that the FBI relied, in
The documents were part part, on information from of officials’ application for a Steele to obtain the initial warrant to the secretive forwarrant, they also show how eign intelligence surveillance the FBI informed the court court, which signed off on of his likely motivation. surveilling Page. A page-long footnote in
Trump tweeted Sunday the warrant application lays on the documents: “As usual out the FBI’s assessment of they are ridiculously heavily Steele’s history and the likely redacted but confirm with interest of his backer, addlittle doubt that the Departing that despitethe political ment of ‘Justice’ and FBI misconcern, the bureau believed led the courts. Witch Hunt at least some of his report Rigged, a Scam!” to be “credible.”
The release appears to Democratic Rep. Adam undercut some of the con- Schiff of California, a ranking tentions in a memo premember on the House Intel- pared by House Intelligence ligence Committee, said the Committee Chairman Rep. documents detail “just why Devin Nunes earlier this year. the FBI was so concerned that Carter Page might be acting as an agent of a foreign power.”
“It was a solid application and renewals signed by four different judges appointed by three different Republican presidents,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also broke with Trump, saying he didn’t think the FBI did anything wrong in obtaining warrants against Page.
“I have a different view on this issue than the president and the White House,” Rubio said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “They did not spy on the campaign from anything and everything that I have seen. You have an individual here who has openly bragged about his ties to Russia and Russians.”
In a 2013 letter, Page had described himself as an “informal adviser’ to the Kremlin but now said “it’s really spin” to call him an adviser.
The documents released Saturday mark the first time in the more than 40-year history of the FISA court that underlying documents for a warrant have been released.