election? does it link in to the crucial question whether the president and his campaign were somehow in on that russian operation to influence the election? so, today, court hearing for maria butina. i should tell you, the bottom line here is that part of what came out in this court hearing today is that prosecutors say her case is connected to the larger story, at least the evidence in her case is connected, they say, to other ongoing case and investigations. i should warn you in advance, there is a little argument about sex and her personal diary, i swear it is relevant to the larger questions here, but you should know what happens. here goes. this is the initial discussion in court, starts right away. it s about discovery. it s about the evidence and materials, the prosecution has seized in their case against maria butina. there s questions now being litigated in court as to whether
they said there was no reason to expect she would feel bound to stay in the united states and face this trial. in order to make that case the prosecutors argued what appeared to be her personal ties, even her emotional ties to the united states, they argued those ties weren t real. this is what they filed with the court last week under the headline butina s quote tie to the united states is a duplicitas relationship. this was prosecutors a few days ago. during the course of this investigation the fbi determined maria butina gained access through u.s. person 1 to an extensive network of u.s. persons in positions to influence political activities in the united states. butina, age 29 and u.s. person 1, age 56, are believed to have cohabitated and been involved in a personal relationship during the course of butina s activities in the united states. but this relationship does not represent a strong tie to the united states because maria butina appears to treat it as
accordance with our local rules but i m not sure you re entitled to certain pieces of evidence to rebut media reports. i m sure it s not pleasant to read incorrect things about your client. no lawyer likes that. my obligations are to get this case resolved whether that be through trial or any other way in an expeditious and fair manner. as to when you get that information you will get it as you would any other information in this trial. no, i m not helping you figure out why the government said that thing about you and your client and trading sex for a job. the prosecution said part of maria butina s secret cover for her operation in this country was she was supposedly involved with this older man, a political activist in south dakota. the government is making that case because they say that relationship wasn t an earnest relationship, it wasn t real, they re saying that was part of er who cover story as a secret agent carrying off this influence operation on behalf of
the russian government. whether or not it turns out to have been true love, this ends up being sort of a key element in how the maria butina secret agent case relates to the rest of the russia scandal and potentially the president s campaign. there s a few of these connections, actually, this is one of them. one of the links already established, prosecutors say maria butina was funded for this u.s. operation by a russian billionaire. the washington post has since named that russian billionaire and also reported that that russian billionaire s son worked on the trump campaign. we have contacted the trump campaign to ask them about whether that s true and if so, what role was played on the campaign by the son of the man who is alleged to have funded this russian influence operation during the campaign. so far we have not heard back from the campaign on that and we will let you know when we do. another potential link to the trump campaign is through this
over the course of this hearing today, they go on to fight with him about why that is bad in and of itself. the judge at one point says to maria butina s defense lawyer, do you think it s in your client s best interests to have your case tried in the press? she later says i certainly don t want to impose a gag order as other judges have in other cases in this court but i will entertain a motion or a request to do so if you think that your statements violate our local rules so i am cushioning you. there s this fight in court today over the defense lawyer of maria butina talking to the press about her case and the prosecution is pressing their argument and the judge seems to basically agree butina s defense lawyer shouldn t be doing that. the judge bluntly warns her defense lawyer that beak he should watch it in terms of him talking to the press. she also later tells the defense