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A 29-year-old gun rights activist served as a Russian secret agent while living in Washington, collecting intelligence on US officials and political organizations and working to establish pathways back communication for the Kremlin. .
The arrest of Maria Butina comes hours after the meeting of President Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a few days after Special Adviser Robert Mueller accused 12 Russian officials of having directed a vast Piracy Project to Influence the 2016 Elections.
Mueller did not file a complaint against Butina, but court records show that his activities revolved around US policy during the 2016 campaign and included contacts with National Rifle Association to develop relationships with US politicians and gather intelligence for Russia.
Court documents also reveal that an unidentified American who worked with Butina claimed to have been involved in setting up a "private communication line" before the 2016 elections between the Kremlin and the "key" officials of a US political party. NRA.
The court documents do not mention the political party mentioned in the October 2016 message, but they contain details that seem to relate to the Republican Party. The documents do not say whether the back channel has ever been established.
The NRA, which has already been connected to Butina in the public reports and information published by members of Congress, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Butina, a Russian national who lives in the United States, has been accused of conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian government. A federal judge in Washington ordered her jail until a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, according to a statement from the Justice Department and Jessie Liu, the US District Attorney of Columbia.
In a statement, Butina's lawyer, Robert Driscoll, called the allegations "exaggerated" and said that prosecutors had criminalized social networking opportunities. He said that Butina was not an agent of the Russian Federation but that he was in the United States with a student visa, graduated from the American University with a master's degree in international relationships.
"There is simply no indication that Ms. Butina seeks to influence or weaken a specific policy or law or that the United States favors at best only a better relationship between the two nations. "said the lawyer. "The complaint is simply a misuse of the law on foreigners, which aims to punish secret propaganda and not the open and public networking of foreign students."
Court documents filed in support of the arrest of Butina accused him of involvement in a conspiracy. began in 2015 in which an anonymous top Russian official "charged" to work to infiltrate US political organizations for the purpose of "reporting to Moscow" of what she had learned.
The indictment documents include several e-mails and Twitter conversations in which she discusses the need to keep her work secret or, in one case, "incognito".
The authorities have not named the Kremlin official accused of having directed Butina efforts, but the details in the court documents correspond to the description of Alexander Torshin, a Russian official who has been publicly connected to it.
Torshin, who became a life member of the NRA in 2012, was part of a group of oligarchs and targeted Russian officials in April with sanctions from the Treasury Department for their associations with Putin and their role in "the progress of the slanderous activities of Russia". listed as "Secretary of State Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation", was designated under the sanctions as a Russian official.
The sanctions hit the targeted Russians by freezing all their assets under US jurisdiction and banning Americans and Americans from trading with them.
Prosecutors say Butina met with US politicians and candidates, attended events sponsored by special interest groups, including two national prayer breakfasts, and hosted friendship dinners and Russian-American dialogue in Washington as part of his work. .
The court documents also show that after the 2016 elections, Butina worked to organize a visit of the Russian delegation to the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast, describing it in an email as an effort to "establish a channel of rear communication ". Butina sent an email to the breakfast organizer thanking him for a present and "for the very private meeting" that followed the breakfast.
"A new relationship between two countries always starts better when it begins in faith," Butina wrote, saying that she had "important information" that would advance the new relationship.
Two days later, she sent an e-mail to another American woman who had participated in some e-mail communications surrounding the prayer breakfast and to her efforts to organize several dinners between Russians and people involved in American politics
in about your wonderful dinner, "Butina wrote." My dear President has received "the message" about your group initiatives and your constructive and benevolent attention to the Russians. "
Butina has already surfaced in US media reports related to his advocacy for weapons rights.
In 2011, she founded a pro-gun organization in Russia, the right to carry arms, and she was involved in coordinating between American militants. gun rights and their Russian counterparts, according to the New York Times, Time and the Everyday Beast.
Butina welcomed several leaders of the NRA and pro-gun conservatives at his group's annual meeting in 2015, according to these reports. Among those who attended, there were former NRA President David Keene, Conservative political agent Paul Erickson and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, later a supporter convinced of Trump.
Butina also says that she met with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker during his presidential campaign launch in 2015, according to a report from Mother Jones magazine earlier this year.
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