Maria Butina Update: Alleged Russian Spy Will Plead Not Guilty, Attorney Says

The U.S Senate authorized its intelligence committee to share the transcripts of alleged Russian agent Maria Butina’s testimony with the Department of Justice and her lawyers late Wednesday. Following this decision, her attorney, Robert Driscoll, said Butina will never plead guilty to the charges because they were not truthful.

"I requested it and agree… transcripts will help her. She testified truthfully. They will not be public, at least initially,” he said.

Sputnik reported that Driscoll told CNN on Wednesday that her defense team was open to a plea bargain with prosecutors, however, he denied that an offer had been made.

The Russian gun rights activist was arrested in Washington on July 15 on charges of acting as a foreign agent. According to investigators, Butina took part in activities without registering herself as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice. Her lawyer said she entered the U.S. on a student visa in 2016 and took up studies at the American University. In May 2018, she received the master’s degree in international relations.

As a member of The Right to Guns, a board of the Russian public associations, she attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in February 2017 which was also attended by President Donald Trump.

In an interview with RT on Wednesday, Driscoll reminded people that she wasn't charged with espionage and said the reports that portray her as a spy misrepresent the actual charges.

“If you read the indictment of the case, she is alleged to be an agent of Russia who failed to register with the attorney general. Essentially, that means that they have not charged her with espionage and if you read the allegations against her, none of the allegations have anything spy-like about it. Essentially, the government is conceding that even under their own theory, if she had filed a piece of paper with the attorney general’s office at the beginning of her trip to America, everything she did was legal,” he said.

“The media — and the government to some extent — are treating it like an espionage crime,” he further said. “The honey trap allegation was set forth in a proffer by the government, meaning they did not produce evidence to back up that allegation at the time. We’re still waiting to see that, and we’re not sure that it even exists, or that it exists in any meaningful form.”

Senators Richard Burr and Mark Warner said in a statement that they requested the Senate to release the transcript.

“In response to requests from the Department of Justice and counsel for Maria Butina, we have sought authorization from the Senate to release to both parties the transcript of Ms. Butina’s testimony before the Committee. The Committee intends to provide the transcript, provided both parties agree to include it under the auspices of a protective order, which we understand is currently under discussion,” they said in a statement.