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Post by Old Badger on Jul 16, 2018 15:41:30 GMT -5
The Putin-Trump-NRA nexus comes back into the news just as Trump kisses Putin's backside on international television: A Russian national with alleged ties to a top Russian official was charged in federal court in Washington Monday with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation, and was ordered held without bond. Maria Butina, 29, was arrested Sunday in the District and made her first appearance in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson. Her attorney, Robert Neil Driscoll, told the judge that Butina’s residence was searched by the FBI in April, that she had testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed session several months ago, and that “we have been offering to cooperate with the government the entire time.” "Butina is accused of developing relationships with American politicians and a “gun rights organization,” none of which are named in the affidavit supporting the criminal complaint. FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson wrote that Butina was attempting to “establish a ‘back channel’ communication for representatives of the Government of Russia.” The affidavit also contains apparent communications, by direct message on Twitter, between Butina and the unnamed Russian official. “Your political star has risen in the sky,” the official told Butina. “Now it is important to rise to the zenith and not burn out (fall) prematurely,” and they later discussed the “Russia-USA friendship society.” Butina, a former Siberian furniture store owner, founded a Russian gun rights group called the Right to Bear Arms and became an assistant to Russian central banker and former senator Alexander Torshin, who is a lifetime member of the NRA. She began reaching out to NRA members and other American gun enthusiasts in 2013, on several occasions hosting NRA executives and gun activists in Moscow, including one delegation that included former Milwaukee Sheriff Dave Clarke. She and Torshin also attended a series of NRA events in the United States starting in 2014. As she traveled the U.S., she had a number of key interactions with the Trump campaign. In June 2015, as Trump announced his candidacy, Butina wrote a column in the National Interest, a conservative U.S. magazine, suggesting that only by electing a Republican could the U.S. and Russia hope to improve relations. The next month, she attended a town hall meeting in Las Vegas where Trump--who had declared his candidacy for the presidency the previous month--was speaking. She found her way to a microphone and publicly asked Trump: “What will be your foreign politics, especially in the relations with my country?” “I know Putin and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin,” Trump responded, in the first of his many campaign statements about his desire to build better ties with Russia. Butina also attended an NRA convention in May 2016, where a Republican operative named Paul Erickson worked to get Torshin a meeting with Trump. In an email to the campaign, Erickson referred to Torshin as “President Putin’s emissary” in an effort to improve relations with the United States. The meeting did not happen, but Butina and Torshin did have brief interaction with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, at the event. Trump Jr. has said the interaction was brief and not memorable. www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maria-butina-russian-gun-rights-advocate-charged-in-us-with-acting-as-russian-federation-agent/2018/07/16/d1d4832a-8929-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html?utm_term=.00c40415d2ab |
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Post by Old Badger on Jul 16, 2018 20:37:43 GMT -5
"Some doubt that Trump is a Russian puppet precisely because his fealty to Putin is so blatant and undisguised. They should consider the case of Mariia Butina, which broke wide open just hours after the Trump-Putin meeting. Butina, who worked for the Russian politician and alleged organized crime figure Alexander Torshin, presented herself as a Russian gun rights activist, and spent years cultivating links to the National Rifle Association. She became a fixture in some pro-Trump circles and was reportedly especially close to a conservative operative named Paul Erickson. "Last year, in a Daily Beast profile, the journalist Tim Mak described Butina as hosting a birthday costume party that was attended by Trump aides. 'She dressed as Russian Empress Alexandra while Erickson was dressed as Rasputin,' Mak wrote. At the party, Butina reportedly boasted that she’d helped the Trump campaign communicate with Russia. If there was a reason to doubt that she was a Russian spy, it was only that one would expect a Russian spy to be subtler. "This weekend, Butina was arrested in Washington, and on Monday her indictment for acting as a Russian agent was unsealed. She was accused of conspiracy to 'exploit personal connections with U.S. persons having influence in American politics in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian Federation.' There’s a useful lesson here in evaluating Trump’s behavior. Sometimes things are exactly as bad as they appear." linkExactly! And it's hard to believe that after today anyone can't see that Trump is Putin's Puppy. |
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Post by goldenbucky on Jul 16, 2018 21:18:31 GMT -5
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Post by Old Badger on Jul 17, 2018 10:53:13 GMT -5
One thing these various probes have made clear is that Putin has been financing the Republicans through intermediaries, clearly including the NRA and CPAC. Butina emailed her overlord in Moscow in 2015 that the GOP would win the next election (the fix was in), so she needed $125,000 to attend the various meetings where she could network with the groups that finance the party, the better to engage the officials of the future GOP Administration. She got the money, went to the meetings, was guided to the "right people" by the CPAC organizer and--lo and behold!--both organizations wound up getting money secretly from Moscow (meaning the GRU) to donate to the GOP. At the 2016 CPAC meeting she just "happened" to be called on during a Q&A by Trump, who then expounded on national television about his view that the US was to blame for deteriorating US-Russia relations, and promising to turn that around. (Promise kept! We now work for Putin.) No, no collusion, no interference, just a "brilliant campaign." By the winner: Putin.  |
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Post by Old Badger on Jul 18, 2018 14:37:59 GMT -5
"[Prosecutors] described a double life in which the woman, Maria Butina, studied at American University and dated a Republican operative from South Dakota, but secretly stayed in contact with a high-ranking official in Moscow and took part in the romance simply as part of the job. She offered sex to another American in 'exchange for a position within a special interest organization,' prosecutors wrote. The new details about Ms. Butina, 29, were disclosed in a court filing in which prosecutors argued that she should be held without bond because she was a flight risk. She was moving money out of the country, had her boxes packed and had terminated her lease, court papers showed...
"Her exploits in the United States were believed to be directed by Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has ties to the country’s security services. 'The defendant’s covert influence campaign involved substantial planning, international coordination, and preparation,' prosecutors wrote. F.B.I. agents said they discovered evidence that she had contact information for officials thought to be employed by the F.S.B., Russia’s domestic intelligence agency. Ms. Butina was also spotted by F.B.I. agents dining with a Russian diplomat in March 2018 before the official was slated to the leave the country. American officials said the diplomat was actually a suspected Russian intelligence official...
"As part of the investigation, F.B.I. agents discovered messages between Ms. Butina and the official believed to be Mr. Torshin in March 2017. In one instance, he praised Ms. Butina after a series of articles were published about her, likening her to Anna Chapman, another redheaded Russian woman arrested along with others by the F.B.I. in 2010 and charged with being unregistered foreign agents. Ms. Chapman was accused of working for Russia’s foreign intelligence service and was later sent to Russia as part of a prisoner swap. Ms. Chapman was also assigned by her Russian handlers to recruit sources in American policymaking circles...The court filing also said that Ms. Butina relied on an unidentified Russian billionaire with ties to the Kremlin for money. In Twitter messages and emails, Ms. Butina describes the Russian as her 'funder.'...
"Prosecutors said a 56-year-old American romantically linked to Ms. Butina was helping her leave the country. While the authorities did not identify the man, he is believed to be Paul Erickson, a longtime conservative activist and National Rifle Association member from South Dakota. The New York Times has previously reported that he had a close relationship with Ms. Butina. Investigators said that to Ms. Butina, their relationship was meaningless, “simply a necessary aspect of her activities,” and she complained about living with him. Ms. Butina traveled widely through the United States since at least 2015, often on visas that were issued after she was invited to events hosted by the N.R.A. At rifle association annual conferences, which she attended with Mr. Torshin, she made a point to meet Republicans with presidential aspirations, including Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin."
Classic KGB spycraft: pretty young woman, sex in exchange for information/entrée, handler back in Moscow. This one wasn't trading in on some mid-level DoD or State Department munchkin, however. Oh, no! She was meeting with potential presidents of the United States, and when I say "meeting" I remind you that Putin himself has said his country has the "best" sex-workers in the world. (Hey, Mrs. Scott Walker: Do you know what your husband was doing in Las Vegas and with whom he was doing it?) And if Erickson was helping her to leave the country, can we assume he's also a Soviet...er, Russian agent? What's amazing is how quickly this case is helping to tie together many of the loose ends of the Mueller investigation. We now can see more clearly the networking that was going on between Russia and a host of right-wing organizations in the US, including not only the NRA, CPAC, and National Prayer Breakfast, but elements of the Republican Party, as well. Right up to and including Donald J. Trump.
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Post by Old Badger on Jul 20, 2018 9:10:55 GMT -5
It's looking more and more as if the Butina case may explain a mystery: "the utter servility of congressional Republicans before a president many of them hate and believe to be compromised by a foreign power." linkVirtually every commentator, regardless of partisan affiliation, has remarked on the surprising willingness of Republicans in Congress to shift their positions 180 degrees on issues that, until 2016, were bedrocks of GOP orthodoxy. For example, "Speaker Paul Ryan, a Russia hawk who is retiring in January, allowed his party to torpedo the House Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian interference in the election." What's with that? Well, Michelle Goldberg thinks she knows the answer: it's the NRA. The evidence is right there in the Maria Butina indictment issued this week by the DOJ: "Butina, 29, appears to have worked for Alexander Torshin, a Russian politician linked to organized crime who is the target of U.S. sanctions. She developed a romantic relationship with Paul Erickson, a conservative operative close to the N.R.A. (Court filings cite evidence it was insincere on her part.) Erickson, in turn, wrote to a Trump adviser in May 2016 about using the N.R.A. to set up a back channel to the Kremlin...If the N.R.A. as an organization turns out to be compromised, it would shake conservative politics to its foundation. And this is no longer a far-fetched possibility...Before Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee abruptly closed their investigation into Russian election interference, committee Democrats wanted to interview both Butina and Erickson. Their Republican colleagues refused." Why would they refuse? Well, to answer that it's worth remembering (Goldberg does not mention this, but she's young) that the GOP's takeover of the House in 1994, after 40 years in the minority, was driven in major part by the NRA's campaign to undo the 1993 assault rifle ban. In many rural--especially southern--districts that had been trending to the GOP this became the final straw that flipped them. For decades the NRA had supported candidates in both parties fairly equally; since then it has became practically a part of the GOP establishment. "McClatchy [news organization] has reported that the F.B.I. is investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money to the N.R.A. to help Trump. [Sen. Ron] Wyden has also been trying to trace foreign money flowing into the N.R.A., but has found little cooperation from the organization, his Republican colleagues or the Treasury Department." Then there's this: "On Monday, a few hours after news broke of Butina’s arrest, the Treasury Department announced a new rule sparing some tax-exempt groups, including the N.R.A., from having to report their large donors to the I.R.S. Wyden called the move “truly grotesque,” saying it would “make it easier for Russian dark money” to flow into American politics. You might ask who benefits. The answer is: not just Trump." |
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Post by goldenbucky on Jul 20, 2018 20:18:28 GMT -5
The ability of Maria Butina to penetrate conservative organizations (and vice versa...) is a hell of an allegory for the Trump movement as a whole. Just because you really want something to be true, doesn't make it so. Her's is a story worth examining in detail.
To wit...
"What is clear is that in Butina, the Russian government either found or created an irresistible persona for US conservatives. The story she repeated over years of speeches and interviews — of a scrappy girl from Siberia fighting for gun rights in Russia — was carefully calibrated to show a passion for self-defense, a yearning for America’s easy access to guns, and a hint of criticism of Russia’s own laws." she began working for Alexander Torshin, a powerful Russian banking official and close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was sanctioned by the US in April, and founded her pro-gun “Right to Bear Arms” group in 2011. Some experts say that the very existence of such an organization in Russia, which has stringent gun laws and little public support for loosening them, should have tipped off US authorities from the start.“It just doesn’t exist,” Anders Åslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an expert on Russia's economic policy, said about what Butina and Torshin touted as a grassroots Russian gun rights group. “It’s a ridiculous front organization with the purpose of infiltrating American groups and forging cooperation with the NRA.” |
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Post by Old Badger on Jul 20, 2018 20:45:44 GMT -5
Her's is a story worth examining in detail. Thanks for that link, GB. I've seen a video of this episode, and also wondered why it seemed like such a set-piece: "After Butina asked Trump that question about Russia at the town hall, his advisers reportedly watched the video and wondered how that had happened and where she had come from. Trump adviser Steve Bannon told Reince Priebus, who would eventually become Trump’s White House chief of staff, that it was odd that Trump had a fully developed answer to her question. Priebus agreed that there was something strange about Butin.” That really stood out. Trump normally just stumbles through answers, usually veering off-message in his Joycean way, yet in this case he appeared to have prepared for the question as if he expected to hear it. Hmmmm... |
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Post by Old Badger on Jul 22, 2018 9:39:22 GMT -5
We now have yet another tie between Butina and Putin: "Maria Butina, the Russian woman charged in federal court last week with acting as an unregistered agent of her government, received financial support from Konstantin Nikolaev, a Russian billionaire with investments in U.S. energy and technology companies, according to a person familiar with testimony she gave Senate investigators. Butina told the Senate Intelligence Committee in April that Nikolaev provided funding for a gun rights group she represented, according to the person. A spokesman for Nikolaev confirmed that he was in contact with her as she was launching the pro-gun rights group in Russia between 2012 and 2014. He declined to confirm whether Nikolaev gave her financial support. Nikolaev’s fortune has been built largely through port and railroad investments in Russia. He also sits on the board of American Ethane, a Houston ethane company that was showcased by President Trump at an event in China last year, and is an investor in a Silicon Valley start-up." linkLet's just stop right here. Trump was in China, where he made a point of discussing a Houston-based company that includes on its board a Russian billionaire, described by US prosecutors as having “deep ties to the Russian Presidential Administration.” (Nikolaev's spokesperson has confirmed he is the unnamed billionaire referenced by prosecutors.) "Nikolaev was spotted at the Trump International Hotel in Washington during Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, according to two people familiar with his presence." So, one may ask what's the connection between Trump and this Russian billionaire? Which naturally leads one to ask WHERE ARE THOSE TAX RETURNS? Republicans in Congress as recently as yesterday were denying there's any need to see them. Hmmmm… At just what point do the myriad connections between Trump, the Trump Administration, The Trump Organization, and the Trump campaign on one hand, and the Russian President, the Russian Administration (including military intelligence), Russian oligarchs connected to the Russian Government, and Russian connections to political campaigns in multiple countries run by American consultants raise questions for Republican Members of Congress? The Trump-Putin collusion was right out in the open this week, for crying out loud!
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Post by goldenbucky on Jul 22, 2018 10:35:51 GMT -5
"Maria Butina...received financial support from Konstantin Nikolaev, a Russian billionaire with investments in U.S. energy and technology companies...Nikolaev provided funding for a gun rights group...Nikolaev’s fortune has been built largely through port and railroad investments in Russia... He also sits on the board of American Ethane...So, one may ask what's the connection between Trump and this Russian billionaire?
You've got to admit - we are learning an awful lot about how "the swamp" operates, aren't we?
You could say it's ironic or utterly predictable, depending on your initial point of view.
The heavy hand of a hostile power is pretty remarkable though.
For those opposed to "the swamp" (of either political affiliation) a consensus should ultimately be reachable on the relationships this represents. IMO it looms as an existential threat to American ideals.
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