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Maria Butina, a Russian national accused of espionage, is seeking a prison sentence for the nine months she has spent in prison, according to a new file filed by her lawyer Friday. Butina, who pleaded guilty in December to a charge of conspiracy to serve as an agent of a foreign official, should be sentenced on April 26.
In a separate note filed Friday night, prosecutors said they would seek a 18 – month sentence of imprisonment and deportation. Although they initially calculated 24 months of incarceration, the government indicated that it had filed a petition that Butina had provided them with "substantial assistance" in cooperating. Butina appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee and provided them with "thousands of pages of documents," his lawyers said.
"Butina was not a spy in the traditional sense of the term" attempt to access classified information to be sent back to her home country, "the government said in her paper." She n & # 39; He was not a trained intelligence officer. But the actions she took were nevertheless taken on behalf of the Russian official for the benefit of the Russian Federation, and these actions were likely to harm the national security of the United States. "
In an FBI statement, Robert Anderson Jr., the former deputy director of the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Division, said that he thought the work "assessment and evaluation" carried out by Butina on behalf of Russia for two years in the United States was "of considerable information value." "In my expert opinion, Butina provided information to the Russian Federation that qualified intelligence officers can operate for years and that could cause considerable damage to the United States. "
Butina's lawyers wrote in their file that she had "a well-intentioned intention" to build bridges between US-Russia relations. "She recognizes that her good intentions have been sought by illegal means," the document says.
Butina's lawyers also detailed her relationship with Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank. In her visa application, Butina said she had already been employed as a special assistant, but prosecutors asserted that she "had continued to act under the direction and control of the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL. in order to defend the interests of the Russian Federation entered the United States.
His lawyers noted in the filing that his activities with Torshin "had triggered the obligation to notify the Attorney General" and that "Maria had failed to provide the required notice, for which she was remorseful".
Butina pleaded guilty to the offense, which indicated that as early as March 2015 and until 2018, Butina had collaborated with the Russian authorities to infiltrate and influence US political groups, including the National Riffle Association.
The government claimed that Butina had told Russian officials that a "Party 1" candidate was about to win the 2016 presidential election and that she had made contact with a US official. , later became a candidate declared to the presidency. No other details have been given to the court, however.
As part of the advocacy agreement, Butina also acknowledged that she had arranged for one delegation to attend the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast.
The FBI office in Washington, DC, investigated the case, with the US District Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice's National Security Division laying charges. This has nothing to do with the investigation led by the special advocate Robert Mueller in Russia.
Butina was recently placed in solitary confinement in Virginia and will remain there until sentenced. The date of the conviction has not yet been set due to Butina's continued cooperation with the government, but a hearing on the state of play is scheduled for 12 February.
Claire Hymes and Robert Legare contributed to this report.
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