Source: Washington Post
U.S. prosecutors requested an 18-month prison sentence for Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina for conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and conservative U.
S. political circles for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July.Butina, 30, the first Russian national convicted of seeking to influence American policy in the run-up to the 2016 election as an undeclared agent of a foreign government, cooperated after pleading guilty in December, and prosecutors said their recommendation made Friday night had already accounted for a six-month reduction for cooperation under a plea deal.
While Butina was not a traditional spy or trained intelligence officer, her actions bore “all the hallmarks” of an intelligence operation to target powerful individuals in a future presidential administration for recruitment later, prosecutors wrote.
“The value of this information to the Russian Federation is immense,” they wrote, adding, “Such operations can cause great damage to our national security by giving covert agents access to our country and powerful individuals who can influence its direction.”
Butina faces sentencing in Washington set for April 26 before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the District.
Her attorneys argued in their own Friday filing that she should be credited with the nine months served since her arrest, receive no additional imprisonment and be deported to her native Russia after the sentencing hearing.
Butina “has done everything she could to atone for her mistakes through cooperation and substantial assistance,” wrote attorneys Robert N. Driscoll and Alfred D. Carry. “Her remorse is genuine and deep.”
Butina cooperated fully and “answered all questions” since her plea, they added, including meeting voluntarily with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Butina admitted to working under the direction of Alexander Torshin, a former Russian government official, and with an American political operative on a multiyear scheme to establish unofficial lines of communications with Americans who could influence U.S. politics.
Included in Butina’s filings to Chutkan were 19 letters attesting to her good character, 15 of which came from fellow Russians including family members, co-workers, her teachers and professors, and assault victims whom she helped when they were wrongly accused of crimes .
“If she violated something, it could not have possibly been intentional. The only possible reason that this could have occurred…
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