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
it does not go well for the defense lawyer. remember where this came from. last week, the prosecutors laid out a case for the judge maria butina shouldn t be released on bail. they were arguing she s a flight risk and might go back to russia. there s 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. during the course of the 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
particular pieces of evidence to take them to the news media we don t want that violation of local rules. the judge. right. i think, mr. driscoll, you re certainly entitled to discovery and to know the basis of the charges against your client in accordance to the local rules but 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. and my goal is to get this case resolved in an expeditious and fair manner. as to when you get that information you will get it as any other in this trial. no, i m not helping you figure out why the golf said that thing about you and your client and trading sex for a job. the prosecution said part of butina ease operation in this country was she was supposedly involved with this older man a political activist in south
become legal trouble for the president if in fact that legal trouble is so worrying those entities and people consider flipping and cooperating with prosecutors for any other larger case this is a might be bringing. that part i care about. joining us now is rebecca o brien who has been on this story. thank you for being here. thank you for having me here. my preface is totally honest, i don t care about the personal dynamics between president trump and michael cohen and don t feel eddified by the tape. but the legal jeopardy for people associated with the president in that case, do i get that right, is there anything wrong with the ways those might shake out? i think what our reporting revealed today and what federal prosecutors are paying attention to, whether the dynamic between michael cohen and donald trump and ami, this publishing
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 their 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 reported that russian billionaire s son worked on the trump campaign. we contacted the trump campaign to ask them whether that was true and what role he funded