According to ABC News, Maria Butina's emails tell the story of a woman who sold herself as having significant Russian government connections and not simply an "ambitious graduate student," as her defense lawyer claims.
Dozens of pages of email correspondence between August 2015 and November 2016, obtained exclusively by ABC News, reveal Butina’s hand in a pair of potentially explosive projects: appearing to arrange a meeting for a delegation of high-ranking members of the National Rifle Association with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and working with the Outdoor Channel to develop a television show highlighting Putin’s “love of the outdoors” that would feature the Russian President himself.
In one instance, Butina played a role in connecting National Rifle Association officials traveling to Russia with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“Almost all your schedule is done,” Butina wrote. “We are waiting [sic] a response from The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs — Mr. Lavrov wants to meet you and we are working to make it real.”
She also tried to serve as liaison between a U.S. network and the Kremlin.
... [I]n another exchange between Butina and a senior executive at the Outdoor Channel, Butina claimed her “contacts directly within the President’s office” were “VERY happy (and excited)” about the proposed program and its political potential.
“I have also just arranged for an official delegation of Russian Kremlin cabinet ministers to travel the U.S. to observe your presidential election in the fall,” Butina wrote in June 2016. “This matters to your project because THEY have already lobbied President Putin to do this show as an example of the kind of relationship Russia could have with America … and with President Trump.”
It is unclear whether that “official delegation” of Kremlin-connected election observers was actually dispatched. But while Butina appears to have succeeded in arranging the meeting with Lavrov, raising the prospect of a discussion between conservative political operatives and a powerful member of Putin’s inner circle in the midst of a presidential campaign, her amateur effort to engineer a television show starring Putin never gained significant traction, raising questions about the extent and authenticity of her Kremlin connections.
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The emails obtained by ABC News detail Butina’s efforts to organize the summit that brought high-ranking NRA members and powerful Russian nationals together in Moscow in December 2015, a trip seemingly sponsored by Butina’s gun-rights group “Right to Bear Arms.”
The delegation included NRA board member Pete Brownell, Trump campaign surrogate Sheriff David Clarke, major NRA benefactor Dr. Arnold Goldschlager and his daughter Hilary, NRA fundraiser Joe Gregory, former NRA president David Keene and Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore. They reportedly met with Butina, her alleged handler Alexander Torshin, the Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2018, and Dmitry Rogozin, then-Russian Deputy Prime Minister who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2014.
Emails suggest Butina was eager to add Lavrov, the powerful Russian foreign minister, to their schedule, and according to one of the members of the delegation, the meeting took place.
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Butina’s defense attorney Driscoll acknowledged that the delegation met with “some hitters” in Moscow, including Lavrov, but told ABC News it was Torshin, not Butina, who had the political connections that made it possible.
As Butina made a court appearance today, CBS News posted a timeline showing how she and Alexander Torshin came to connect with the NRA and Donald Trump.
An excerpt:
2015
Torshin leaves parliament to become deputy governor of Russia's Central Bank; Butina becomes his assistant.
Butina and Torshin attend an NRA convention in Nashville; Torshin says he met Donald Trump there. Butina questions Trump at Freedomfest gun show in Las Vegas.
NRA delegation visits Moscow on Butina's invitation, meets Torshin, oligarchs, top officials.
2016
Butina and Torshin attend National Prayer Breakfast, and Torshin attends NRA convention in Louisville where he says he met Donald Trump Jr.
Butina starts masters program at AU. She and Torshin exchange messages about contacts with Russian intelligence, and a "back channel" to U.S. right wing, according to the FBI.
Timeline of Russian plot to infiltrate NRA and GOP (CBS News)
Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina was paid to pursue access to Vladimir Putin for TV show (ABC News)