A Russian woman pleaded guilty in a U. S. court on Thursday to a single conspiracy charge in a deal with prosecutors and admitted to working with a top Russian official to infiltrate a powerful gun rights group and make inroads with American conservative activists and the Republican Party as an agent for Moscow.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Russian woman pleaded guilty in a U. S. court on Thursday to a single conspiracy charge in a deal with prosecutors and admitted to working with a top Russian official to infiltrate a powerful gun rights group and make inroads with American conservative activists and the Republican Party as an agent for Moscow.
Maria Butina, a former graduate student at American University in Washington who publicly advocated for gun rights, entered the plea at a hearing in Washington before U. S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. Butina, who was jailed after being charged in July and initially pleaded not guilty, also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Clad in a green jumpsuit with her red hair pulled back in a long braid, Butina replied “absolutely” when asked by Chutkan if her mind was clear as she prepared to plead guilty to conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. Prosecutors dropped one other charge as part of the plea deal.
Butina on Thursday admitted to conspiring to work with a Russian official and two U. S. citizens as a Russian agent from 2015 until her July arrest to infiltrate the National Rifle Association, a group closely aligned with Republican politicians including Republican President Donald Trump and U. S. conservatives, and sway Washington’s policy toward Moscow.
Butina represents the first Russian citizen to be convicted of working to shape U. S. policy in the time period spanning the 2016 election campaign, though others have been charged in a separate investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The actions Butina acknowledged taking occurred during the same time period that U. S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia engaged in a campaign of propaganda and hacking to sow discord in the United States during the 2016 presidential race and boost Republican candidate Trump’s chances against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
