A Russian national was charged in federal court Monday with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation within the United States.

Mariia Butina, 29, was charged with “undertaking activities without officially disclosing the fact that she was acting as an agent of the Russian government.” The criminal complaint accused Butina of failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. That is the same charge filed against President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

The affidavit in the complaint claims that Butina corresponded with a Russian official using email, Twitter and other electronic means, and worked with two U.S. citizens in an effort to influence American politics.

According to the Justice Department, “from as early as 2015 and continuing through at least February 2017, Butina worked at the direction of a high-level official in the Russian government who was previously a member of the legislature of the Russian Federation and later became a top official at the Russian Central Bank. This Russian official was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2018.”

Butina served as the deputy to Alexander Torshin, a former member of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and the deputy head of the Central Bank of Russia. He is believed to be the “Russian Official” named in court papers.

Torshin was among the 24 Russian oligarchs and senior Russian government officials sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department this year for profiting from the Russian government’s illegal and subversive activities in the United States and around the world. They were banned from the United States.

The two U.S. citizens mentioned in the affidavit were not named in the complaint. One is described as an “American political operative,” and the other as having email communications with Butina about setting up dinners between Russians and influential Americans in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The charges were filed by Justice Department national security prosecutors, not special counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Butina’s arrest came 48 hours after the U.S. indicted 12 Russians for cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Here is what we know from the indictment about Butina and what she is accused of doing.
• The indictment said that Butina was attempting to "establish a 'back channel' communication for representatives of the Government of Russia."
• She is a Russian national who entered the United States in August 2016 on a student visa. She studied international relations at American University in Washington D.C.
• She is a former Siberian furniture store owner.
• She co-founded a Russian gun rights group called the Right to Bear Arms.
• In the complaint, Butina is accused of trying to infiltrate an unnamed “gun rights organization” believed to be the National Rifle Association. She described the organization as “the largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress.”
• Butina made contact with NRA members, attended NRA meetings in the United States and hosted NRA executives and gun activists in Moscow.
• According to court documents, Butina told associates that what she was doing in the United States was approved by Putin.
• Butina asked Trump a question about US-Russia relations during FreedomFest in Las Vegas in July 2015. FreedomFest, according to its organizers, is “an annual festival where free minds meet to celebrate great books, great ideas, and great thinkers in an open-minded environment. It is independent, non-partisan, and not affiliated with any organization or think tank.” Butina asked Trump, “My question will be about foreign politics. If you will be elected as president, what will be your foreign politics especially in the relationships with my country? And do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging of both economy [sic]? Or you have any other ideas?"
• Court documents said that an “American political operative” – U.S. Person 1 in the complaint – helped Butina to target political, business and news media officials for her plans. She met with the American political operative in Moscow, prosecutors said. The person introduced her to the gun rights organization officials.
• U.S. Person 2 in the complaint is a U.S. citizen “who was included among the participants in a series of email communications in 2016 and 2017 that reveal Butina’s efforts to arrange a series of dinners in the District of Columbia and New York City involving Russian nationals and U.S. persons having influence in American politics.
• Her home was searched by FBI agents in April, according to her attorney, Robert Neil Driscoll. Driscoll told U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Robinson that his client has “has been offering to cooperate with the government the entire time."</s>Just hours after President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and held a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart that stunned many political observers in the U.S., federal prosecutors have unsealed a criminal complaint alleging that a Russian graduate student living in the D.C. area conspired to act as an agent of Russia without registering, as required, under U.S. law.

Maria Butina, 29, was ordered detained by a magistrate judge in Washington, D.C., pending a detention hearing Wednesday. Court papers said she entered the U.S. on a student visa in August 2016, for graduate work in international relations at American University, but secretly worked on behalf of the Russian government. Butina, through her lawyer, denied that she has been acting as a Russian agent.

FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson wrote in a sworn statement that one goal of the alleged conspiracy was to "exploit personal connections with U.S. persons having influence in American politics in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian Federation."

Authorities said Butina established contact with an unnamed American political operative in Moscow in 2013 who worked with her to arrange introductions to influential people inside the U.S. and to advance Russian interests. One of the contacts was with an "organization promoting gun rights," which NPR has previously reported is the National Rifle Association.

"I believe that Butina and the Russian official took these steps in order to infiltrate those groups and advance the interests of the Russian Federation," agent Helson wrote.

The FBI affidavit said she reported her activities to a Russian official via email, Twitter and other means. That Russian official is not named in the court filing but fits the description of Alexander Torshin, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April.

Butina, 29, was ordered detained by a magistrate judge in Washington, D.C., pending a detention hearing Wednesday. Court papers said she entered the U.S. on a student visa in August 2016, for graduate work in international relations at American University, but secretly worked on behalf of the Russian government.

Robert Driscoll, a lawyer for Butina, denied in a written statement that she had been acting as a Russian agent. Driscoll said she had cooperated with Senate intelligence committee investigators and provided thousands of documents. He said the FBI executed a search warrant on her apartment in April.

"The substance of the charge in the complaint is overblown," Driscoll said. 

"While styled as some sort of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agent Registration Act, in actuality it describes a conspiracy to have a 'friendship dinner' at Bistro Bis with a group of Americans and Russians to discuss foreign relations between the two countries."

He added: "There is simply no indication of Butina seeking to influence or undermine any specific policy or law in the United States."

The case is being pursued by the Justice Department's National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington D.C., not the special counsel investigating Russian election interference.

The charge was unsealed only hours after President Donald Trump met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The charge was unsealed on the same day as Trump's much-watched summit with Putin and just days after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for undertaking a scheme to hack and then dump into the public domain the email communications of top figures in the Democratic Party.

Both developments by federal prosecutors appear likely to increase pressure on the president, his administration and Republicans in Congress to take a stronger approach to Russian interference in the U.S. political system — something Trump hesitated to do while standing alongside Putin Monday in Helsinki.

U.S. intelligence officials are in agreement that Russia interfered in the 2016 election using a wide array of methods, including but not limited to hacking the Democratic National Committee's emails, breaking into American voting infrastructure and launching a sprawling misinformation campaign.

"I have great confidence in my intelligence people. But I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said. "Dan Coats [the Director of National Intelligence] came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."</s>A 29-year-old Russian woman was arrested in Washington and charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered Russian agent, the US Justice Department said Monday.

Federal prosecutors allege that Maria Butina was gathering intelligence on American officials and political organizations and working to establish back-channel lines of communications for the Kremlin.

Court papers accuse Butina of collaborating in a conspiracy that began in 2015, involving an unnamed senior Russian official who "tasked" her with infiltrating American political organizations and "reporting back to Moscow."

Read more: Sergei Skripal: The former spy poisoned with a nerve agent

The announcement of Butina's arrest came just hours after US President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and only a few days after special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officials over attempted hacking aimed at influencing the 2016 election.

While the charges were brought forward by the US Attorney's Office and not Mueller, court papers reveal her activities revolved around American politics during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The New York Times reported that during the 2016 campaign Butina attempted to set up secret meetings between Trump and Putin twice.

According to court documents, an unnamed American who worked with Butina claimed he was involved in setting up a "private line of communication" before the 2016 election between the Kremlin and "key" officials in an American political party through a "gun rights organization."

Read more: Opinion: The new digital insecurity

The papers do not name the political party, but do contain details that appear to refer to the Republican Party, while the gun rights organization is widely reported to be the National Rifle Association (NRA). The court documents, however, do not confirm if the back channel was ever successfully established.

Butina has featured in the US media before due to her work with gun-rights advocacy. In 2011, she founded a pro-gun organization in Russia called the Right to Bear Arms, and she has since been involved in coordinating between gun rights activists in the US and Russia.

The Justice Department said Butina had strong links to a "Russian official," who was not identified in the court documents, but has been widely reported to be Russian politician Alexander Torshin, an ally of Putin.

Torshin, who became an NRA life member in 2012, was among a group of Russian oligarchs and officials targeted in April with Treasury Department sanctions over their associations with Putin and their roles in "advancing Russia's malign activities."

Read more: Vladimir Putin: 'Russia does not want to split EU'

Torshin, who was listed as "State Secretary-deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation," was designated under the sanctions as a Russian official.

Butina's attorney, Robert Driscoll, said the allegations were "overblown" and prosecutors had criminalized mundane networking opportunities.

Driscoll said Butina was not a Russian agent, but was actually on a student visa in the US, where she was attending the American University and studying to earn a master's degree in international relations.

"There is simply no indication of Ms Butina seeking to influence or undermine any specific policy or law or the United States — only at most to promote a better relationship between the two nations," Driscoll said in a statement. "The complaint is simply a misuse of the Foreign Agent statute, which is designed to punish covert propaganda, not open and public networking by foreign students."</s>A 29-year-old Russian woman living in Washington, D.C., has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian government while developing ties with American citizens and infiltrating political groups, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.

Maria Butina, who studied at American University in Washington and is a founder of the pro-gunRussian advocacy group Right to Bear Arms, was arrested on Sunday and accused of operating at the direction of a high-level official who worked for the Russian Central Bank and was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Justice Department said.

The court records did not name the official.

Butina has appeared in numerous photographs on her Facebook page with Alexander Torshin, the deputy head of Russia’s Central Bank who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Butina worked for him as an assistant. Other media reported on a business relationship between Butina and Torshin.

Torshin did not reply to a request for comment. The Russian Central Bank declined to comment.

Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, said she was not a Russian agent. He said she was cooperating with U.S. authorities and had previously appeared voluntarily behind closed doors for eight hours before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Her apartment was raided by the FBI in April, he said.

“Ms. Butina intends to defend her rights vigorously and looks forward to clearing her name,” Driscoll said.

The Justice Department complaint was made public on the same day President Donald Trump met Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki, at which Trump refused to blame the Russianleader for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Before the summit, Trump took to Twitter to blast Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, calling it a “rigged witch hunt.”

The investigation into Butina’s efforts to influence American politics was overseen by the Justice Department’s National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and not by Mueller’s office.

Democrats on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee investigating any ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia previously highlighted Butina as a person of interest and sought permission from the committee’s Republican leadership to bring her in for questioning.

Republicans declined that request and later issued a report along party lines that found there was no collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The Justice Department said in its complaint that Butina worked with two unnamed U.S. citizens and the Russian official to try to influence American politics and infiltrate a pro-gun rights organisation.

The complaint did not name the group, however photos on her Facebook page showed that she attended events sponsored by the National Rifle Association. An NRA spokesman did not reply to requests for comment.

Butina allegedly arranged dinners in Washington and New York City and tried to develop relationships with American politicians to establish “back channel” lines of communication to “penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus,” the complaint said.

The complaint did not specifically mention Trump’s campaign.

The source who said Butina worked for Torshin said that she was a Trump supporter who bragged at parties in Washington that she could use her political connections to help get people jobs in the Trump administration after the election.

In a Dec. 8, 2016, class project at American University, Butina gave a presentation titled “What Might President Trump’s Foreign Policy Be Toward Russia?” and listed several of Russia’s key policy objectives, according to a copy reviewed by Reuters.

American University spokesman Mark Story told Reuters that Butina was enrolled as a student there in the summer of 2016 and graduated in the spring of 2018 with a Master of Arts degree.

In a video posted on YouTube from the FreedomFest event in Las Vegas in July 2015, Butina can be seen asking then-candidate Trump if he would continue to support sanctions against Russia if he were elected president.

The Justice Department’s complaint also referenced an email written by Butina in March 2015 which discussed the prospect of a major political party winning the 2016 election which was “traditionally associated with negative and aggressive foreign policy” toward Russia.

She went on to say in the email that they should build a relationship with a major gun rights organization that is the “largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress” and a sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in order to improve U.S.-Russia relations.

On her Facebook page, Butina is featured prominently photographed alongside a number of American politicians and other high-profile figures, including Wisconsin Governor and former Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker and David Keene, the former president of the NRA.

Butina was ordered held pending a hearing set for Wednesday, the Justice Department said.</s>A 29-year-old Russian woman was arrested in Washington and charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered Russian agent, the US Justice Department said Monday.

Federal prosecutors allege that Maria Butina was gathering intelligence on American officials and political organizations and working to establish back-channel lines of communications for the Kremlin.

Court papers accuse Butina of collaborating in a conspiracy that began in 2015, involving an unnamed senior Russian official who "tasked" her with infiltrating American political organizations and "reporting back to Moscow."

Read more: Sergei Skripal: The former spy poisoned with a nerve agent

The announcement of Butina's arrest came just hours after US President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and only a few days after special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officials over attempted hacking aimed at influencing the 2016 election.

While the charges were brought forward by the US Attorney's Office and not Mueller, court papers reveal her activities revolved around American politics during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The New York Times reported that during the 2016 campaign Butina attempted to set up secret meetings between Trump and Putin twice.

According to court documents, an unnamed American who worked with Butina claimed he was involved in setting up a "private line of communication" before the 2016 election between the Kremlin and "key" officials in an American political party through a "gun rights organization."

Read more: Opinion: The new digital insecurity

The papers do not name the political party, but do contain details that appear to refer to the Republican Party, while the gun rights organization is widely reported to be the National Rifle Association (NRA). The court documents, however, do not confirm if the back channel was ever successfully established.

Butina has featured in the US media before due to her work with gun-rights advocacy. In 2011, she founded a pro-gun organization in Russia called the Right to Bear Arms, and she has since been involved in coordinating between gun rights activists in the US and Russia.

The Justice Department said Butina had strong links to a "Russian official," who was not identified in the court documents, but has been widely reported to be Russian politician Alexander Torshin, an ally of Putin.

Torshin, who became an NRA life member in 2012, was among a group of Russian oligarchs and officials targeted in April with Treasury Department sanctions over their associations with Putin and their roles in "advancing Russia's malign activities."

Read more: Vladimir Putin: 'Russia does not want to split EU'

Torshin, who was listed as "State Secretary-deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation," was designated under the sanctions as a Russian official.

Butina's attorney, Robert Driscoll, said the allegations were "overblown" and prosecutors had criminalized mundane networking opportunities.

Driscoll said Butina was not a Russian agent, but was actually on a student visa in the US, where she was attending the American University and studying to earn a master's degree in international relations.

"There is simply no indication of Ms Butina seeking to influence or undermine any specific policy or law or the United States — only at most to promote a better relationship between the two nations," Driscoll said in a statement. "The complaint is simply a misuse of the Foreign Agent statute, which is designed to punish covert propaganda, not open and public networking by foreign students."</s>Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian woman who was arrested in Washington DC on Monday, has been formally indicted by a grand jury on charges of acting as an agent of the Russian government and conspiracy to take actions on its behalf, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Butina was not charged with espionage or with being a member of a Russian intelligence service. The most serious charge she faces is that of acting as an agent of the Russian government, for which she could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The conspiracy charge can yieled a maximum five-year prison term.

The announcement of Butina's arrest and indictment came just hours after US President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and only a few days after special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officials over attempted hacking aimed at influencing the 2016 election.

Federal prosecutors allege that the 29-year-old was gathering intelligence on American officials and political organizations and working to establish back-channel lines of communications for the Kremlin.

Court papers accuse Butina of collaborating in a conspiracy that began in 2015, involving an unnamed senior Russian official who "tasked" her with infiltrating American political organizations and "reporting back to Moscow."

Read more: Sergei Skripal: The former spy poisoned with a nerve agent

While the charges were brought forward by the US Attorney's Office and not Mueller, court papers reveal her activities revolved around American politics during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The New York Times reported that during the 2016 campaign Butina attempted to set up secret meetings between Trump and Putin twice.

Butina had been featured in the US media before, due to her work with gun-rights advocacy. In 2011, she founded a pro-gun organization in Russia called the Right to Bear Arms, and she has since been involved in coordinating between gun rights activists in the US and Russia.

According to court documents, an unnamed American who worked with Butina claimed he was involved in setting up a "private line of communication" before the 2016 election between the Kremlin and "key" officials in an American political party through a "gun rights organization."

Read more: Opinion: The new digital insecurity

The papers do not name the political party, but do contain details that appear to refer to the Republican Party, while the gun rights organization is widely reported to be the National Rifle Association (NRA). The court documents, however, do not confirm if the back channel was ever successfully established.

The Justice Department said Butina had strong links to a "Russian official," who was not identified in the court documents, but has been widely reported to be Russian politician Alexander Torshin, the deputy head of Russia's Central Bank and an ally of Putin.

Torshin, who became an NRA life member in 2012, was among a group of Russian oligarchs and officials targeted in April with Treasury Department sanctions over their associations with Putin and their roles in "advancing Russia's malign activities."

Read more: Vladimir Putin: 'Russia does not want to split EU'

Both Torshin and the Russian Central Bank have delined requests for comment on the allegations.

Butina's attorney, Robert Driscoll, said the allegations were "overblown" and prosecutors had criminalized mundane networking opportunities.

Driscoll said Butina was not a Russian agent, but was actually on a student visa in the US, where she was attending the American University and studying to earn a master's degree in international relations.

"There is simply no indication of Ms Butina seeking to influence or undermine any specific policy or law or the United States — only at most to promote a better relationship between the two nations," Driscoll said in a statement. "The complaint is simply a misuse of the Foreign Agent statute, which is designed to punish covert propaganda, not open and public networking by foreign students."

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>"Maria Butina is not an agent of the Russian Federation," attorney Robert Driscoll, Burtina's legal representation, said in a statement obtained by Sputnik News. Driscoll is the former deputy assistant attorney general and chief of staff, Civil Rights Division, of the US Department of Justice. "She is a Russian national in the United States on a student visa who recently graduated from American University in Washington, DC," he said.

The charge comes three days after US special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian nationals accused of conspiring to hack the Democratic National Committee with spearphishing emails. Hours before the Justice Department announced the charge, US President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin commenced "successful" talks in Helsinki.

"The timing has to be designed to sort of influence the public perception," Loud & Clear host Brian Becker said Monday, since "Trump is saying ‘Let's have better relations, we are going to have better relations with Russia.'"

While allegations that Butina illegally lobbied in the US come amid fervor from Democrats, the intelligence community, and the mainstream media over Mueller's latest indictments and friendly comments made by US President Donald Trump at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Mueller "has not expressed interest" in allowing Butina to interview him as she has requested, according to the statement from Driscoll.

She has, however, testified in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for eight hours and produced thousands of documents, according to her lawyer.

"Court filings detail the Russian official's and Butina's efforts for Butina to act as an agent of Russia inside the United States by developing relationships with U.S. persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation," a Monday statement from the DOJ says.

The crux of the allegation against Butina, who recently completed a masters degree in international relations, is that she acted as an unregistered foreign agent, communicating with a Russian official via email and Twitter direct messages, according to the indictment.

Her overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy include emailing a US "person in an effort to develop, maintain, and exploit a relationship," emailing another US person to "organize an event for the purpose of influencing the views of US officials," and acting as a foreign agent while she attended American University in DC.

Fault Lines host Lee Stranahan, speaking from Helsinki, said that the indictment over alleged failure to inform the US Attorney General of her lobbying is to be expected from the DOJ. "We've had a situation where you see people arrested for ‘driving while black,' right? That's a thing that's happened if you're an African American in [the US]. Now what we're seeing is ‘politicking while Russian.' And the reason I say that is because we've had statements by [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper as well as by [former FBI Deputy Assistant Director and current agent Peter] Strzok that can only be described as racist. The former ODNI talked about Russians' genetic propensity. You couldn't say that — there's literally — I can't think of another nationality you could say that about without everyone going, ‘Well that's the most racist thing I've ever heard.'"

Strzok originated the FBI investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia on July 31, 2016, and became the lead investigator, according to Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC). "Then you had Strzok saying he ‘hates the motherf*cking Russians' and talking about them as savages," Stranahan noted.

"The substance of the charge in the Complaint is overblown," Butina's lawyer's statement reads. It characterizes the allegation — the sole allegation against Butina — as rendering it "unlawful for a foreign national student in the United States to develop a personal, professional, or networking relationship with an American, or to attend public events in hopes of meeting US political figures." The statement characterizes the charge against Burtina as a "misuse of the Foreign Agent statute, which is designed to punish covert propaganda, not open and public networking by foreign students."

While the substance of Butina's alleged political interference is not included in DoJ documents — nor their statement accompanying the indictment — clues on the internet stem from a June Mother Jones article that says the political organization referenced in the DoJ statement is the National Rifle Association (NRA).

The NRA has long been been demonized by Democrats over allegations of encouraging mass violence and obstructing reform to the US' permissive gun laws, which they argue contribute to the epidemic of violence, particularly school shootings, in the country. "I think the NRA is telling people to shoot us," tweeted Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy.

According to Russian official Aleksandr Torshin, the man believed to be the one Butina was allegedly working for, he and Butina are lifelong members of the NRA. Butina started a gun rights group in Russia called Right to Bear Arms in 2011 and they have together lobbied the Russian government to those ends, according to Mother Jones.

Torshin was under investigation by the FBI in pursuit of allegations that he helped Russia funnel money into the NRA to help Trump's campaign, according to a January article from McClatchy, although no indictments have been issued to that end and no criminal convictions have been made. In US law, a conviction is secured after an allegation is proved "beyond a reasonable doubt." The evidentiary requirements for an indictment are far lower. Torshin was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in April 2018.

According to Butina's attorney, "over a dozen" FBI agents raided her apartment in April. She has "offered repeatedly to answer any questions the [DOJ] had," said Driscoll, an attorney at McGlinchey Stafford. "Rather than avail itself of that opportunity the government chose to arrest Ms. Butina on Sunday" without notifying Butina's attorney.</s>A grand jury has formally approved a criminal indictment of Russian national Maria Butina on two charges, conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent without prior notification of the attorney general. She is alleged to have tried to infiltrate U.S. political organizations on behalf of a high-ranking Russian official over several years. At one point during the presidential campaign, she and the official tried unsuccessfully to broker a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The indictment states that the 29-year-old Butina, who was arrested Sunday, entered the U.S. in August 2016 on an F-1 student visa. On her visa application State Butina said she had been previously employed as special assistant to a Russian official, Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia's central bank, but her employment with him had ended on May 20, 2016. In April 2018, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Torshin.

Despite her claim on the application that she no longer worked for Torshin, Butina "continued to act under the direction and control of the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation after she entered the United States."

Around 2015, or even earlier, and leading up to the present day, Butina "and others known and unknown to the grand jury...knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit an offense against the United States," according to the indictment.



Butina's attorney, Robert Driscoll, denied she was a spy and said she has cooperated with the government.

"Maria Butina is not an agent of the Russian Federation. She is a Russian national in the United States on a student visa who recently graduated from American University in Washington, D.C. with a Masters Degree in International Relations and 4.0 Grade Point Average," Driscoll said in the statement.

Sources have suggested to CBS News that the fact that Torshin wasn't charged along with Butina is a sign that special counsel Robert Mueller is trying to secure her cooperation and get her to turn on Torshin or other Russian officials.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 29-year-old Russian woman living in Washington, D.C., has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian government while developing ties with American citizens and infiltrating political groups, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.

Maria Butina, who studied at American University in Washington and is a founder of the pro-gun Russian advocacy group Right to Bear Arms, was arrested on Sunday and accused of operating at the direction of a high-level official who worked for the Russian Central Bank and was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Justice Department said.

The court records did not name the official.

Butina has appeared in numerous photographs on her Facebook page with Alexander Torshin, the deputy head of Russia's Central Bank who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Butina worked for him as an assistant. Other media reported on a business relationship between Butina and Torshin.

Reuters could not immediately reach Torshin for comment.

Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, said she was not a Russian agent. He said she was cooperating with U.S. authorities and had previously appeared voluntarily behind closed doors for eight hours before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Her apartment was raided by the FBI in April, he said.

"Ms. Butina intends to defend her rights vigorously and looks forward to clearing her name," Driscoll said.

The Justice Department complaint was made public on the same day President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki, at which Trump refused to blame the Russian leader for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Before the summit, Trump took to Twitter to blast Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia, calling it a "rigged witch hunt."

The investigation into Butina's efforts to influence American politics was overseen by the Justice Department's National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, and not by Mueller's office.

Democrats on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee investigating any ties between Trump's campaign and Russia previously highlighted Butina as a person of interest and sought permission from the committee's Republican leadership to bring her in for questioning.

Republicans declined that request and later issued a report along party lines that found there was no collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

The Justice Department said in its complaint that Butina worked with two unnamed U.S. citizens and the Russian official to try to influence American politics and infiltrate a pro-gun rights organisation.

The complaint did not name the group, however photos on her Facebook page showed that she attended events sponsored by the National Rifle Association. An NRA spokesman did not reply to requests for comment.

Butina allegedly arranged dinners in Washington and New York City and tried to develop relationships with American politicians to establish "back channel" lines of communication to "penetrate the U.S. national decision-making apparatus," the complaint said.

The complaint did not specifically mention Trump's campaign.

The source who said Butina worked for Torshin said that she was a Trump supporter who bragged at parties in Washington that she could use her political connections to help get people jobs in the Trump administration after the election.

In a Dec. 8, 2016, class project at American University, Butina gave a presentation titled "What Might President Trump's Foreign Policy Be Toward Russia?" and listed several of Russia's key policy objectives, according to a copy reviewed by Reuters.

American University spokesman Mark Story told Reuters that Butina was enrolled as a student there in the summer of 2016 and graduated in the spring of 2018 with a Master of Arts degree.

In a video posted on YouTube from the FreedomFest event in Las Vegas in July 2015, Butina can be seen asking then-candidate Trump if he would continue to support sanctions against Russia if he were elected president.

The Justice Department's complaint also referenced an email written by Butina in March 2015 which discussed the prospect of a major political party winning the 2016 election which was "traditionally associated with negative and aggressive foreign policy" toward Russia.

She went on to say in the email that they should build a relationship with a major gun rights organisation that is the "largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress" and a sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in order to improve U.S.-Russia relations.

On her Facebook page, Butina is featured prominently photographed alongside a number of American politicians and other high-profile figures, including Wisconsin Governor and former Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker and David Keene, the former president of the NRA.

Butina was ordered held pending a hearing set for Wednesday, the Justice Department said.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.</s>
• A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Maria Butina, a Russian national with deep ties to the National Rifle Association.
• Butina is charged with conspiracy against the US and acting as an unregistered agent of the Russian government.
• A hearing for her case is set for Wednesday, the Justice Department said in an earlier press release.

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A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, indicted Maria Butina, a Russian national with links to the National Rifle Association, on two charges.

Butina is accused of conspiracy against the United States and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian government.

Butina was arrested on Sunday and made an initial court appearance Monday afternoon, the Justice Department said. A hearing in her case has been set for Wednesday.

Butina was not arrested as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. But her arrest indicates that the US government as a whole is focusing more of its attention on Russia’s influence in domestic politics.

According to an affidavit submitted with the DOJ’s criminal complaint against Butina, she worked at the direction of a high-level Russian government official who was previously a member of the Russian parliament and later a top official at the Russian Central Bank. The official is not named, but the description in the indictment fits that of Alexander Torshin, a Russian gun-rights advocate and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Torshin was sanctioned by the US in April.

The DOJ also accused Butina of falsely reporting, when she applied for a student visa to the US, that she had already finished working for the Russian official. Instead, the DOJ alleges that Butina worked for this individual from at least 2015 through February 2017.

Both Torshin and Butina have deep ties to the NRA, and Torshin attended the NRA’s convention every year between 2012 and 2016, occasionally with Butina at his side. He has met every NRA president since 2012, according to NPR.

And when the NRA sent a delegation to Moscow in the winter of 2015, it was Torshin who received them on behalf of The Right to Bear Arms, the Russian gun-rights group that Butina spearheads.

Butina has been cultivating her own ties with American gun-rights activists, like Republican strategist Paul Erickson, whom she has been acquainted with since at least 2013.

Erickson appears to fit the description of an individual denoted as “US Person 1” in the affidavit.

The affidavit said Butina and this individual worked together to arrange introductions to other Americans who are influential in US politics, “including an organization promoting gun rights … for the purpose of advancing the agenda of the Russian Federation.”

The affidavit outlines several emails Butina sent to US Person 1 that highlight the depth of her connections to the NRA and to GOP politics. It also said Butina and the Russian official worked to establish “back channel” lines of communication with US political operatives to penetrate the US national decision-making apparatus” and advance Russian interests.

The affidavit lists another individual, “US Person 2,” described as a US citizen who was included in a series of email communications in 2016 and 2017.

Butina allegedly told this person that the Russian official was “very much impressed by you” and that the “Russians will support the efforts from our side.”

In another email, sent on October 4, 2016, US Person 1 allegedly said to an acquaintance, “Unrelated to specific presidential campaigns, I’ve been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [GOP] leaders through, of all conduits, the [NRA].”

The next day, Butina and the Russian official exchanged a series of Twitter direct messages in which Butina said they had “made” their “bet” and that she was “following our game.”

The official replied that it “is not about winning today’s fight (although we are striving for it) but to win the entire battle. This is the battle for the future, it cannot be lost! Or everyone will lose.”

Butina had a birthday party on November 12, 2016, four days after Donald Trump won the US election in a shocking upset. The gathering featured several top Trump campaign advisers, according to The Daily Beast. Erickson, who was also in attendance, reportedly told guests Butina was on the Trump transition team.

Two months later, Butina was one of several Putin-allied Russians who attended Trump’s inaugural celebrations.
The US government charges Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian woman with conspiracy to act as a Russian government agent while infiltrating political groups.