The judge in the case chastised both the defense and the prosecution in the pretrial hearing Monday
Judge Tanya Chutkan has denied Maria Butina’s request to modify the conditions of her bond before trial. Butina, who is currently being held in the Alexandria Detention Center, asked to be released before trial. However Judge Chutkan said that the Russian national still remains a flight risk and that’s “the court’s primary concern.”
Before the ruling came down, Butina’s attorneys had brought a dress bag full of clothing for her to change into in case the judge released her. But she came and went in her green jumpsuit, white long sleeve tee shirt and glasses.
In another blow to the defense, Chutkan imposed a gag order on the case. Butina’s lead attorney, Robert Driscoll, has been vocal in the press about the government’s characterization of his client, which she found violated rules that ban lawyers from making public statements that might unfairly prejudice jurors. Chutkan felt that Driscoll had “overstepped” saying, “I do find your comments have crossed a line.”
The government did not go unscathed Monday either. Chutkan had harsh words for the prosecutors who, on Friday, walked back their allegations that Butina exchanged sex for a job. She said that she had personally reviewed the messages and concluded that “it was apparent on their face” that those messages were jokes. The judge questioned how the prosecution could have interpreted the messages any other way, “I’m dismayed by that,” she said.
The judge indicated that she is worried about how the court would be able to seat a jury that is untainted by the prosecution’s misrepresentation and the defense’s public pronouncements.
The government assessed that the bulk of the discovery process will be completed after it finishes examining the most recent hard drive it has received, which contains about two terabytes of data. A lot of the information is in Russian, and the translation is slowing the process.
No trial date was set but there will be another status hearing on Nov. 13.
