Russian accused of trying to influence conservatives poised to plead guilty

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors appear to have struck a plea deal with Maria Butina, the Russian woman accused of running a secret campaign to influence powerful American conservatives, according to court papers filed Monday.

The prosecutors and Butina’s lawyers jointly requested a hearing for Butina to change her plea. The move is almost always the final step before announcing a deal.

Although neither side disclosed any details of what they may have agreed upon, a deal would most likely require Butina to cooperate with investigators. Her arrest in July stemmed from what officials described as a broader counterintelligence investigation by the Justice Department and FBI, and investigators probably want to hear what Butina could tell them about covert Russian influence efforts in the United States. The inquiry is separate from the work being done by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Any deal would bring to a close a case that drew headlines with prosecutors accusing Butina, 29, of running a yearslong campaign to work her way into the upper echelons of the Republican Party’s elite, using sex as spycraft when necessary. The government later backed off that allegation.

In the government’s telling, Butina used her position as a gun-rights activist in Russia to establish connections with powerful American conservatives, including leading members of the National Rifle Association. She then posed as a graduate student at American University in Washington to secure a visa, prosecutors said, and struck up a relationship with a far older Republican operative, relying on his contacts to further the aims of her spymasters in Moscow.

Butina’s lawyers have pushed back strenuously on that portrayal of their client.