has fessed up to having received about $2,500 from Russian sources, including a small gift from Torshin, which the group attributed to dues for a “life membership.” But as my colleague Chris Smith reported in June, Senate Democrats and Robert Mueller suspect there could be more to the story.
gave the Trump campaign in 2016-triple what it invested on behalf of Mitt Romney in 2012. has been looking into whether illegal Russian money may have comprised some part of the $30 million the N.R.A.
According to a McClatchy report from January, the F.B.I. But it is even more concerning for the N.R.A., the Republican-aligned pro-gun-rights group with which Butina was deeply involved. political operative who helped her make connections in Washington, as well as a Russian official, Alexander Torshin, who Butina admitted in her allocution had directed her activities.īutina’s guilty plea is potentially bad news for her boyfriend, who may in turn face a charge of conspiracy for working to advance her interests, including floating the possibility of setting up a back-channel meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
But after being held for months in solitary confinement in Virginia, Butina agreed to cooperate with federal investigators, providing information on her boyfriend, Paul Erickson, a G.O.P. The 30-year-old Russian national, who spent years infiltrating Republican political networks including the National Rifle Association, had originally pleaded not guilty. On Thursday, accused Russian spy Maria Butina walked into a downtown Washington, D.C., courtroom and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an illegal foreign agent.