Maria Butina filed an appeal of her 18-month prison sentence Wednesday.
A federal judge sentenced the Russian agent to a year and a half in prison last month but gave her credit for the nine months she has already spent in jail.
Butina, 30, pleaded guilty in December to failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department while she acted at the direction of Alexander Torshin, a longtime figure in Russian politics, to infiltrate conservative American political circles and influence U.S. relations with Russia.
Prosecutors asserted Butina was a national security threat because she worked to “spot and assess” potential intelligence targets for the Russians.
Butina’s lawyer Robert Driscoll said before her sentencing that an immediate deportation would have been the best outcome.
“I don’t think she’s in jail solely because of politics. But I think anyone who thinks that someone who wasn’t Russian would be in this situation is fooling themselves,” Driscoll told reporters after the sentencing.
Her lawyers said she was simply a student who wanted to improve relations between Washington and Moscow.
She has been the only Russian arrested to date in the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, though she was not indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Butina is being held at the Grady County Jail in Chickasha, Okla., until she is transferred to a federal prison facility. She arrived at the jail Monday.
