Maria Butina’s lawyers ask for leniency ahead of sentencing.
. Although she originally maintained that she was innocent, she signed onto a plea agreement in December of 2018, agreeing to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign official.is downplaying the severity of Butina’s actions, writing that “while Butina was in the United States claiming merely to be a student, she was spending much of her time devoted to another purpose -- advancing the interests of the Russian Federation.
“The types of services the defendant provided to the Russian Federation are specifically of the type that Russia would seek to use against the United States,” prosecutors wrote. “Such operations can cause great damage to our national security by giving covert agents access to our country and powerful individuals who can influence its direction.”
Butina admitted in a statement of offense to undertaking a diplomacy project meant to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Although Butina said that her plans were supported in concept by a Russian official, she said she did not receive any financial backing from Russia. However, prosecutors said Butina was aware that the official was reporting some information about her work in the U.S. wider within Russian government.have been the subject of scrutiny.
Butina’s attorney, Robert Driscoll, confirmed to ABC News that she was interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team in the. Driscoll characterized the interview as short and not substantial.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Maria Butina asks to be released from jail and sent back to Russia in new filingMaria Butina has asked a federal judge to release her from prison and send her home to Russia after she spent nine months in jail since her arrest for acting as a foreign agent of the Russian government.
Read more »
Prosecutors request 18-month prison sentence for Russian agent Maria ButinaButina sought to cultivate ties with the National Rifle Association and even a presidential candidate, who is unnamed in the filing, in a bid to establish a communications backchannel between the Russian government
Read more »
Admitted Russian agent Butina asks U.S. court to be lenientMaria Butina, who has admitted to working as a Russian agent to infiltrate an in...
Read more »
US prosecutors seek 18-month term for Russian ButinaUS prosecutors are seeking an 18-month jail sentence for a Russian gun-rights activist who pled guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent by infiltrating conservative American groups on behalf of her government. Maria Butina, who is 30, has cooperated with prosecutors since pleading guilty in December
Read more »
Prosecutors seek 18-month sentence for Maria Butina in Russian plot to forge ties to U.S. conservative groupsRussian gun-activist pleaded guilty in plan to gain access to the NRA, U.S. conservative circles
Read more »
Puerto Rico lost nearly 4% of its population after Hurricane Maria, data showNew Census Bureau data shows that Puerto Rico lost nearly 4% of its population after Hurricane Maria — the greatest population drop in the recorded history of the island, according to one demographer.
Read more »
With Notre Dame aflame, witnesses sing ‘Ave Maria’ in the streets of ParisRising above the flames, came a chorus of voices - uniting in song as they mourned their beloved cathedral.
Read more »
Feds ask for 18-month sentence in Russian agent caseWASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. prosecutors say a Russian gun-rights activist who admitted being a secret agent for the Kremlin should serve an 18-month prison sentence. The request came in a sentencing memo filed late Friday in Maria Butina's case. Prosecutors say Butina was 'not a spy in the traditional sense' and wasn't formally trained as an intelligence officer. Instead, they say she tried to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups as Donald Trump rose to power.
Read more »
Ballet prepares kids in Peru for a future beyond their poor communitiesFormer National Ballet of Peru dancer Maria del Carmen Silva's mission goes beyond teaching her students how to plié or dance to Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers.”
Read more »
The funeral as we know it is becoming a relic — just in time for a death boomThese days, there are more golf-course cocktail send-offs and backyard potluck memorials, more Clapton and less “Ave Maria,” more Hawaiian shirts and fewer dark suits.
Read more »