Maria Butina acted as an 'access agent' recruiting willing Republicans ... and she wasn't alone
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On Friday, the U.S. government filed sentencing guidelines for Russian agent Maria Butina. Despite speculation that Butina’s connections with the NRA and Republican politicians might net her no more than a suspended sentence and a deportation back to RussMaria Butina acted as an 'access agent' recruiting willing Republicans ... and she wasn't alone
On Friday, the U.S. government filed sentencing guidelines for Russian agent Maria Butina. Despite speculation that Butina’s connections with the NRA and Republican politicians might net her no more than a suspended sentence and a deportation back to Russia—where she could expect something of a hero’s welcome—the government instead asked for an 18-month sentence on a single count of conspiracy. They describe her as “not a spy in the traditional sense of trying to gain access to classified information to send back to her home country,” but insist that Butina’s actions were “for the benefit of the Russian Federation, and those actions had the potential to damage the national security of the United States.” The sentencing document details Butina’s actions, how they compare to those of others sentenced for the same crime, and why the government is seeking a sentence solidly in the middle of the potential range. But appended to the sentencing guidelines is an addendum authored by the former head of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. And that addendum doesn’t just explain why Butina’s actions are significant; it provides a window into something that has so far gone almost without mention in the post-Mueller report period: the counterintelligence investigation of Russian actions. Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, picked up on the addendum to Butina’s sentencing and has done an evaluation of how these pages reveal the significance of what’s still lurking out there when it comes to Russia, the Trump campaign, 2016, and beyond. The counterintelligence aspect of the Russia investigation is the one area that has been so far fully “redacted.” Because it’s not in the report. Other than a few black bars in the Mueller report that may be related to that investigation, the counterintelligence work has continued in silence, offering few insights into its discoveries. But what’s revealed in this document is Butina’s role not in gathering intelligence, but in acting as an “access agent.” Her purpose wasn’t to rifle the files of the NRA for damaging information. It was to find those people in the Republican Party so desperate for power that they would eagerly reach out to Moscow as a means of keeping or extending that power. And she found many. Read more