Well, this is quite interesting.
If Maria was actually working for the Russian Federation as an official employee/agent, then that would mean the Kremlin would provide her with legal representation.
But they did not because she came in on a student VISA.
Or, was she an employee of a private corporation, or one of those Public Private Partnerships, considering the fact that these Quasi-Governmental Organizations (that do not incorporate) started in Russia, while going to school, if she was in school.
So, this means she was not engaged in espionage and is not an agent of a foreign government, unless that foreign government is another nation state other than Russia.
More than likely, it is just a bank.
Maybe it would be a conflict of interest if the Kremlin provided her legal counsel, if the same political infiltration schemes were used in Russian political organizations.
But, hey, what do I know?
I know the Kremlin is advocating for her human rights as a citizen of Russia and letting the world know the state of our prison system.
Perhaps, the Michigan GOP or the NRA can start a legal defense fund for her.
#FreeMariaButina
WASHINGTON – A federal judge appointed an additional lawyer on Thursday to advise Maria Butina, a Russian national
charged with conspiracy and acting as the agent of a foreign government.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan appointed public defender A.J. Kramer as an advisory counsel to Butina without further explanation. The move came after Chutkan held a phone conference with Butina's defense lawyers, Robert Driscoll and Alfred Carry, and assistant U.S. attorneys Erik Kenreson and Thomas Saunders.
Butina has until Dec. 10 to argue why the transcript of the phone conference shouldn't be made public.
Chutkan scheduled a hearing Dec. 19 to get an update about the case. But on Wednesday, Chutkan scheduled the phone conference Thursday.
The U.S. attorney's office declined comment and defense lawyers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Chutkan earlier placed a gag order on both the federal prosecutors and the defense team that prevents them from speaking publicly about the case.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers had agreed Nov. 28 that "they remain optimistic about a pretrial resolution of this matter," meaning that a trial might not be necessary.
Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in Washington issued a statement Thursday calling for Butina's immediate release and calling the case a "blatant outrage."
The case against Butina was filed by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and is unrelated to Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing inquiry into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Butina, who entered the U.S. in 2016 on a student visa, has been jailed as a flight risk without bond in Alexandria, Virginia, since her arrest in July. She has been held for months in solitary confinement, which keeps her in "a steel door cage the size of a parking space" for 22 hours each day, according to one of her court filings. She asked Chutkan to allow her into the jail's general population, but was rejected.
She is accused of infiltrating multiple political organizations, including the National Rifle Association, to gain influence for Russia.
In the original charging documents filed in July, prosecutors claimed that 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."
The official, whose description matches Alexander Torshin, had been sanctioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2018 and is prohibited from traveling to the U.S.
The pair identified political organizations and politically connected individuals who they could "exploit," the indictment said. She has been active with the NRA in recent years and is credited for creating a Russian version of the gun-rights organization, which officials have pointed to as a way for her to gain contacts and supporters.
A March report issued by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee referred to the public reporting about Butina and Torshin, claiming that Butina "sought to facilitate meetings with Trump campaign officials and between President Putin and candidate Trump during the election."
officials as regards the detained Ukrainian sailors. No such measures have been imposed on any of them
