and also speaking to journalists, and that is a surprise takeaway to day as well, a wund of the things that the judge wanted to make sure of in the sentencing that she was of sound mind because the argument had been from the defense that it could relate to a mental health issue if she wasn t released from solitary confinement, and that everything that marina butina said today that she knows that what she did and whether or not this is going to the commute her sentence. and she plead guilty knowing that the judge does not have a say over the deportation question, and this is not decided here, and the judge only decides on the sentencing, and not the deportation which is trouble for mariia butina if she is deported back to russia. and so joyce has raised the question if moscow is approving of this, and frank from your counter intel experience, is this a way of inserting more confusion, and disinformation into the the american intelligence community? yes, joyce raises an
first, tell us what you saw there there. yes, we saw her coming out from the court with green jumpsuit, and her hair pulled back in braids and she was stoic as they read the answercharges. and her answers were yes, no, one-word answers. and it with because guilty plea, and the judge took a moment to say that the government has phone calls that butina had with a journalist while in detention and that is when the government heard reference to her lawyer robert driscoll that he had perhaps set up the phone calls and put him in a conflict of interest to influence her plea.
what we are seeing, and people need to understand this, it is the new approach of the russian intelligence services, and what do i mean by that? they got burned badly several years ago when the fbi wrapped up a cell of 10 illegals operating for ten years here, and putin said that we will do it differently from now on. and what we are seeing in butina is an opportunistic approach which is someone volunteers and welle positioned, and they are in d.c. and ready to go, and we train her up quickly with minimal orientation, and we use what we have got where we have got her when we need her. and the question might b how many more marias are there out there, and how is she going to cooperate and what was she privy to. and to follow up with you, if she is post sentencing now that she has pleaded guilty and after the cooperation, generally, this is going oneed to be deportation, and what are the risks to her in terms of the witness protection, and the
telling his friends that he is worried about impeachment. and the reason why it is so nerve-rackinging for h ining nerve-racking for him right now is they don t know what is coming next. good day. with this breaking news, i m andrea mitchell in washington. moments ago a russian woman who has ties to key players and the national rifle association pleaded guilty in 23ed ral court for failing to register as a foreign agent. 33-year-old mariia butina is a foreign student here in washington operated in top republican circles while reporting back to the circles in russia including is sergey lavrov. joining us is intelligence reporter ken delainian, and jim vance, a former u.s. attorney, and analyst fred ceglusi, and
know where her contact or the person who was running her in this whole undercover operation has now disappeared from the high levels of the russian government. and joyce, let s talk about first this case, and then how it may or may not relate to the other cases that we are watching, because this is a definite russian connection. well, it is interesting a that this case was prosecuted by the u.s. attorney in the district of columbia. that means that at least initially mueller if he was given that opportunity by dc passed on this as being apart from his core prosecution which of course involved coordination between the campaign and russia. but these cases have a way of developing more as the facts come to light and the incredibly interesting suggestion that you and frank discussed this notion that someone encouraged the president to call on butina and that is what led trump for the first time to indicate that he might be willing to relax sanctions against russia, and