Robert Driscoll, the attorney representing alleged Russian agent Maria Butina, said that prosecutors have misrepresented his client in their case by taking messages she sent out of context.
Driscoll was asked on CNN “Anderson Cooper 360” about direct messages Butina allegedly sent to Russian politician Alexander Torshin, asking for “further orders.”
“I think that, like most of the government’s case, is taken completely out of context,” Driscoll said. “Those Twitter DMs – which, by the way, most Russian spies don’t communicate by Twitter DM – which are unencrypted, there’s thousands of them. … There’s Twitter DMs about picking up toothpaste in America. There’s DMs with pictures of kids and dogs and everything else.”
Butina, 29, was charged this week for conspiracy against the U.S. and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian government. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In court documents filed before Butina’s appearance Wednesday in Washington, D.C., federal prosecutors alleged she was connected to high-profile members of the NRA, and was in regular contact with the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency that replaced the Soviet-era KGB.
Driscoll said that his client was innocent and that “the government cannot prove a case here.”
The government in a court filing also accused Butina of trading sex for a spot with “a special interest organization.” The person is widely suspected to be Paul Erickson, a Republican political operative.
“The government kind of dropped those allegations without any evidence,” Driscoll said. “I frankly find it kind of offensive – just because she’s an attractive woman, that’s the direction people go in.”
[More: Russian Foreign Ministry calls for release of Maria Butina]
