By Randy DeSoto
The alleged Russian female spy who was arrested the same day as President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, met with two top Obama administration officials in 2015.
Based on several people familiar with the sessions and an account prepared by the Washington, D.C., think tank that arranged them, Reuters reported that in April 2015, then-Treasury undersecretary for international affairs Nathan Sheets and then Federal Reserve vice chairman Stanley Fischer met with the alleged 29-year-old Russian spy Maria Butina and Russian Central Bank Deputy Governor Alexander Torshin.
Butina traveled to the U.S. with Torshin, her boss, for separate meetings with Fischer and Sheets arranged by the Center for the National Interest “to discuss U.S.-Russian economic relations during Democratic former President Barack Obama’s administration.”
She reportedly acted as a translator during the meetings.
Federal prosecutors charged Butina last week with conspiring against the U.S. and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia.
Butina’s attorney Robert Driscoll told CNN on Friday that the case against his client is “pretty thin gruel.”
CNN host Anderson Cooper read the attorney several Twitter direct messages that Butina had allegedly sent to Torshin, including one where she wrote, “I’m ready for further orders” after Trump’s victory in November 2016.
“I think that, like most of the government’s case, is taken completely out of context,” Driscoll said. “Those Twitter DMs — which, by the way, most Russian spies don’t communicate by Twitter DM — which are unencrypted, there’s thousands of them. … There’s Twitter DMs about picking up toothpaste in America. There’s DMs with pictures of kids and dogs and everything else.”
“I think that for a woman who’s been under surveillance for the better part of two years, it’s pretty thin gruel to find a two-year-old … message and say that that proves she’s a spy. Most spies do things. She didn’t seek nuclear submarine plans, she didn’t try to recruit any agents, she didn’t pay anyone any money,” the attorney added.
Driscoll argued in court last week that his client is not a flight risk, noting Butina voluntarily testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in April and remained in the country after 15 FBI agents searched her apartment that same month. She is currently being held in a Washington. D.C. jail.
According to The New York Times, federal prosecutors are alleging that Butina was engaged in an influence campaign run by Torshin, who has ties to Putin.
Central to the Department of Justice’s case against Butina is her failure to register as a foreign agent.
The Russian was in the U.S. on a student visa, which she obtained in 2016, graduating from American University in May.
Prosecutors allege her status as a student was just a cover as she built a network of political connections in the United States, particularly within the National Rifle Association.
She is a founder of the Russian gun rights group, “The Right to Bear Arms,” which Torshin supported. The Russian banker is a lifetime member of the NRA, The Washington Post reported.
Butina attended multiple Conservative Political Action Conferences and even appeared in a question and answer session at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas in July 2015, where she asked the recently announced candidate Trump his views on sanctions against Russia.
“I know Putin and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin,” the candidate said. “I don’t think you’d need the sanctions.”
Of course, since taking office, Trump has added sanctions and expelled dozens of Russian diplomats.
The Russian government has called the charges against Butina “fabricated” is pushing for her release.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated in a phone conversation with US Secretary of State @SecPompeo that Russia’s Maria Butina has been arrested by the US on fabricated charges and called for her release #FreeMariaButina
➡️https://t.co/cxSPGZ4tZ0 pic.twitter.com/zX3vu6bcas
— Russia in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) July 21, 2018
The Russian embassy tweeted on Saturday that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone about the matter.
The timing of the DOJ bringing charges against Butina in the midst of the Helsinki Summit does seem suspect, but if it was meant to accentuate Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, in this case, that string goes all the way back to the administration of Barack Obama.