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?
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.
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.”
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.
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.