Will Trump pardon Mariia Butina?

Mariia Butina - on paper, a recent grad from a US university, who likes the NRA, and is Russian.

The most likely reality, she’s been planted in the US, to facilitate the moving of money from Russia, through the NRA, to the GOP.

She’s the only indicted Russian who has been in the US at the time of the indictment, and has been arrested on charges of acting as a foreign agent without registering with the Justice Department.

Apparently she has already testified before Congress, behind closed doors. No one seems to know exactly what she testified about.

If she is found guilty of funneling Russian money into an American election, will Trump pardon her? On the one hand, it would fit in with his current cozying up with Russia. On the other hand, how would the US public take Trump pardoning a Russian convicted of trying to influence the election?

Nope. She’s just a peon.

If her name were more recognizable or if she had a bigger presence on the political stage, then yes.

She’ll get traded eventually.

Mariia Butina Bananafana fotima ?

That would have had to be before the Senate committee, because House Dems have been pretty emphatic that they’d wanted to call her in to testify (along with ~30 others, is the word now), but Nunes refused.

Added question, can U.S. law enforcement prevent her from leaving the country if she’s bailed? She is a Russian citizen.

Not leaving the country would, of course, be a condition of bail.

And would undoubtedly be complied with. And now that we’ve had our ration of humor for the day…

Maybe if she gets a nose job and a makeover.

He would because he’s an evil moron. But eventually someone will tell him that the people he pardoned can be required to testify under oath about what they know without any more 5th amendment protections. If they refuse and are charged with criminal contempt then he can pardon them for that but they can just be ordered to testify again, and likely state authorities will pursue action for which the subject can’t be pardoned by the president. I think he’s aware of this already or he would have been making it rain pardons already.

Pardoning Sheriff Joe is one thing; pardoning a foreign spy would be arguably the most controversial pardon in American history. The optics of that would be so bad that perhaps Paul Ryan gets a sudden surge of testosterone and calls Trump’s behavior “REALLY regrettable and unfortunate” instead of just “regrettable and unfortunate.”

It worked for Paula Jones.

That’s where my thinking is headed. If it was up to Trump, I could see him offering Mariia a pardon, on the behest of Putin. That would get her out of prison and allow her to get out of the US and back to Russia.

I don’t think Trump would even realize the how explosive the decision would be. And I don’t think any of his advisers can get him to see sense, on anything.

Did she testify before Congress? I just saw a Democrat bemoaning the fact that they wanted to call her to testify before the House Intel Committee but Devin Nunes refused to allow it.

I always knew that the NRA was a nest of Commie spies.

“Just because somebody is redheaded, they were accused of being some sort of spy for Russia. I think that this has gotten totally out of control,”

  • Sarah Huckleberry Sanders

Defending gingers! Freckle-faced, knock-kneed, soul-sucking gingers! Connect the dot, people! Connect the dot!

Take our advice, at any price
A Butina like Maria is mighty nice
Butina, Maria Butina for sale!

From HuffPo.

So her attorney thinks she testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. No mention of the House.

The prosecution has filed a motion to deny bail, which states that, at the time she was arrested, she had terminated her lease, packed up all her belongings, and wired money back to Russia. So I doubt this question is going to come up.

If she were free, there would be no way to stop her leaving the country. Even if they took her passport away, international law prohibits preventing her from entering her home country’s embassy, and once she’s there, she’s home free.

Not necessarily. Consider Julian Assange: he’s a citizen of Ecuador, but it hasn’t got him on a flight from London to Quito.