Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians, according to US officials

Politics & Elections
4725

Back in February 2017, Buzzfeed published an article about a woman named Maria Butina (also spelled Mariia Butina), a Russian living in the DC area. The article described the close working relationship between Butina and long-time Republican insider Paul Erickson as well as Butina’s favored status among American gun rights activists. Buzzfeed reported several second hand accounts of Butina claiming that she passed communications between the Trump campaign and individuals in Russia.

Well. Today, Butina was charged with acting as an unregsitered agent of the Kremlin.

The “Russian official” is probably Alexander Torshin, a former Russian Senator, and a man with reputed ties to Russian organized crime.

4726

You’re right. They’ll most often take the hardware in a criminal matter. They would still image everything, but the defendant wouldn’t get their hardware back. Rather, they would be provided with a copy of the image during discovery along with any other evidence the government produces.

I’d say it’s likely for a few reasons, but I don’t have a definitive answer as to why. I asked one of our white collar crime attorneys who often deals with the FBI and got his input as well.

Most likely, it’s because they can. It’s easier for them to seize the equipment, take it back, and work on it at their leisure as opposed to sending forensic analysts out to image everything on premises.

4727

Maria Butina, the Russian gun advocate tied to Alexander Torshin, who met repeatedly with NRA officials, has been detained, charged by US prosecutors today under FARA (!)

https://t.co/yStO3DJevk

4728

Link to the DOJ site:

Read pages five and 6 of the affidavit where it mentions “POLITICAL PARTY 1” and “GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION”. 1 guess as to whom they mean…

4729

After Trump’s performance today, I think we are seeing that HRC was 100% correct when she said that. Trump basically smooched Putin’s butt in front of the entire world.

4730

I really try not to see every piece of breaking news as some kind of bombshell. Honestly, I do. But this Butina indictment… Holy shit.

First of all, she emailed to US Person 1 (probably Paul Erickson) that the Russians were expecting the Republicans to take control of the White House. This email was in March of 2015. Kinda curious on what basis they made that prediction. Then, in October 2016 Butina and her Russian government contact (Torshin, I think) exchanged Twitter DMs where Butina says “We made our bet… we will win” and Torshin replies, “Of course we will win!”. And all throughout 2016, she was trying to get invitations for Russian officials, including Putin himself, to the National Prayer Breakfast. It was as though they were so certain they would win, they had no compunctions about trying to score Vladimir Fucking Putin an invitation to the Prayer Breakfast.

Erickson (assuming that’s who it is) was all-in on this, writing a personal email in October 2016 that said he was “involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [Republican*] leaders through, of all conduits, the [NRA*]” (Asterisked names masked in the indictment; their identification seems obvious to me, I suppose I may be wrong.)

Then, finally, there is not a smoking gun, but a smoking goddamn H-bomb. Butina writes to Erickson, regarding the Russian delegation to the Prayer Breakfast, that the Russian attendees are “very influential” and “They are coming to establish a back channel of communication” (my emphasis, because Holy Fuck!).

Then, after having dinner with US Person 2, who appears to be someone involved in setting up the Prayer Breakfast, Butina emails him to thank him and to say, “My dearest President has received ‘the message’ about your group initiative and your constructive and kind attention to the Russians.” Putting ‘the message’ in quotes. High quality tradecraft there.

I wasn’t able to copy and paste from the indictment PDF. Apologies for any typos.

Anyway, this is, like, a big fucking story, right? Here it is. An agent of the Russian government using the NRA and Christian groups to establish a back channel with Trump, whom they were suspiciously certain would win when everyone else was preparing for President Clinton.

Uh… God. Damn.

4731

Check out the body language. Who looks like they had a good meeting? Who looks like they got shelled?

4732

And here’s Butina sharing a moment with former NRA President and Lon Chaney cosplay champion Wayne Lapierre: https://twitter.com/AndrewZucker/status/1018955495779065857

4733

That is comedy gold, Jerry!

4734

I think you’re absolutely correct about the import of this. The only reason we won’t hear much about it today is that the US president just publicly bowed down and offered his full submission to the Russian president. That’s going to take up a lot of bandwidth.

But the Butina connections to the Trump campaign do look, at this point, as though they cannot be explained as anything other than full-blown conspiracy to interfere with the US election. In other words: the goods.

4735

I seriously do not want people to miss this: Did you hear about Putin’s “incredible offer” to Trump?

Are you fucking kidding me? They’re flaunting it across the world… what are we going to do about it?

4736

The smoking gub.

4737

I’m not laughing. Are you?

4738

Remember that after the 2014 Sochi Olympics went well, Putin felt frisky enough to invade Ukraine and annex Crimea.

Now the 2018 World Cup has gone well, and moreover, the entire world has just watched the American president bow down before Putin. How frisky might he be feeling now?

So the question “what are we going to do about it” might apply not only to Putin’s trolling of the US (by offering to install his intelligence officers into the Mueller investigation)—it might apply to some action Putin might take. (Estonia, look out.)

4739

Well, as I pointed out in the Trump-Putin summit thread that was inexplicably moved to IMHO, the rumor has been that Trump will withdraw the US from Syria and hand control of things there over to Putin, which effectively hands him influence (and control) across the Middle East.

4740

And a very useful port on the Mediterranean. Think of what Putin could do with that!

(Weird about IMHO. I didn’t realize political threads were being moved there.)

4741

Not that mere photo ops mean a lot, but Butina seemed to get photos with lots of influential folks, including Scott Walker.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/maria-butina-photos-nra-leaders-gop

4742

I have to hand it to Trump - today’s event was the most Presidential butt-snorkeling ever known. Pathetic in every way. He’s clearly Putin’s poodle. MRGA!

4743

They liked being associated with guns, of course. ‘This brave Russian woman is fighting for the rights of gun owners even in strictly-controlled Russia!!’ and all that sort of thing.

Also, they like money. And what we’re going to find out, I suspect, is that there was a LOT of money sloshing around.

4744

Can’t. Not a dentist.