Butina pleaded guilty on Thursday.
Maria Butina, the 29-year-old Russian woman who pleaded guilty on Thursday to committing conspiracy against the U. S., only confessed to being a spy because the U. S. had threatened to send her to Guantanamo Bay, Russian politician Anton Morozov alleged Thursday.
Russian officials are known for spreading disinformation and propaganda that is unrelated to the facts. In this case, federal investigators spent over a year monitoring Butina and collecting evidence of her work as a foreign agent, and there is no evidence to suggest that U. S. investigators threatened to send her to the military prison.
Butina appeared in court in Washington at 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday. She agreed to cooperate with investigators and provide details about Russian efforts to infiltrate Republican political circles to influence U. S. foreign policy. A statement of offense signed by Butina claimed that she had started working as an agent for the Russian government around March 2015 without notifying the U. S. Office of the Attorney General, and that she had conspired with a Russian official and at least one American.
But Russian officials have continued to defend the young woman despite her admission of guilt.
