A Russian woman accused in a salacious case of working as an unregistered foreign agent is being framed by the Justice Department, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“It seems that the FBI is conducting a political put-up job instead of carrying out its duty to fight crime,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday.
DOJ officials accused Maria Butina of using her academic pursuits as cover for espionage work conducted on behalf of a Russian official who has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department. Butina has pleaded guilty, but federal officials argued that she should be held without bond due to alleged connections to Russian intelligence officers.
“Because Butina has been exposed as an illegal agent of Russia, there is the grave risk that she will appeal to those within that government with whom she conspired to aid her escape from the United States,” federal prosecutors wrote Wednesday.
They accused Butina of “attempting to establish unofficial lines of communications with U.S. politicians and political organizations” on behalf of the Russian government. To that end, she also started a “personal relationship” with a Republican political operative and offered sexual favors to advance her espionage work, the Justice Department alleged.
“Butina appears to treat it [the relationship] as simply a necessary aspect of her activities,” the prosecutors wrote, per NBC. “For example, on at least one occasion, Butina offered an individual other than U.S. Person 1 sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization. Further, in papers seized by the FBI, Butina complained about living with U.S. Person 1 and expressed disdain for continuing to cohabitate with U.S. Person 1.”
Zakharova derided the allegations — “Such far-fetched allegations against our fellow citizen seem strange,” she said, and suggested the prosecutors have an ulterior motive. “What should not go unnoticed is that all this happened shortly before the bilateral summit in Helsinki, of course, with the obvious goal of diminishing its positive effects,” she said.
Russian officials likewise argued that special counsel Robert Mueller indicted a dozen Russian military intelligence officers for the 2016 election interference last week in order to sabotage the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump. But the president’s team approved the release of the indictments, according to reports.
“Justice Department officials were mindful of Trump’s upcoming meeting with Putin, so Rosenstein briefed Trump on July 9 about the forthcoming indictment before the President left on his European trip,” according to CNN. “After consultations between Trump and top White House officials, the White House later told Justice not to hold off in announcing the indictment, according to the sources.”
