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Was a by-the-book, but still absolutely shocking court proceeding today in federal court in washington. i mean, with this today, maria butina becomes the first russian national convicted for seeking to influence u.s. politics around the time of the election in 2016. she had not excuse me. she had previously pled not guilty after she was arrested in july. she was charged with operating as an agent of the russian government in this country. she initially pled not guilty. what is perhaps most rashlable about her this u-turn in her case, not that she changed her mind, changed her plea from not guilty to guilty, the thing most remarkable about her guilty plea is it is accompanied by an aggressive cooperation agreement she has entered into with prosecutors in exchange for the u.s. attorney in d.c. dropping one of the felony charges against her, butina has agreed ....
Broader counter intelligence investigation by the justice department and the fbi that pre-dated the 2016 election and is separate from the work being done by the special counsel. so does that make you feel better or worse about your country? does that make you feel better or worse about this scandal, right? i mean, this means that if the new york times is right, and if the inference we can draw from the fact that the special counsel doesn t appear to be involved in the butina prosecution, if the inference is right, that means in addition to everything being investigated by the special counsel, that means there s a whole separate criminal counter intelligence case about a secret in the republican party in the 2016 campaign. this is like a spare. but now that maria butina has changed her plea to guilty and we can see not only her cooperation agreement and her plea deal, but also the statement of offense where ....
Duh, yeah. and then at the end of all of it, she gets deported back to russia. according to section 12 of the plea agreement, which happens on just the next page. just a remarkable turn of events. but there are a few interesting things about this case in terms of how it fits into the larger picture that we don t totally understand yet, but that may end up being important by the time we get to the end of this movie in either language. first of all, as i mentioned, this court proceeding in the butina case today, it happened in federal court in washington, d.c., and that s a court where we ve seen a lot of activity related to the special counsel s office. but robert mueller and his special counsel s office were not involved in the butina case at all. this was handled today, as it has been from the beginning, by regular federal prosecutors associated with the u.s. attorney s office in d.c. as the new york times described it, it stemmed from what officials described as a ....
yeah, setting her loose among republicans in washington was kind of like fishing with dynamite. i think what s really interesting about the butina case, because as you say, she s not their best. this isn t a 007 movie. i think it shows you though, that the russians and i should add that i don t represent the views of the u.s. government here. but i think it shows the russian government has identified the conservative movement in the united states as the exposed flank of our society. and this is a real change from the cold war days where the old soviet regime thought that movements on the left, unions or peace movements or anti-nuclear movements, were potentially their entry into american civil society. it s very clear the russians have decided that conservative and right wing organizations like the n.r.a. are the way that they re going to penetrate american civil society. and be the cat among the pigeons here. tom, this is your life s work, a lot of it anyway. does this make you ....
Republicans in washington was kind of like fishing with dynamite. i think what s really interesting about the butina case, because as you say, she s not their best. this isn t a 007 movie. i think it shows you had, though, that the russians and i should add that i don t represent the views of the u.s. government here. but i think it shows the russian government has identified the conservative movement in the united states as the exposed flank of our society. and this is a real change from the cold war days where the old soviet regime thought that movements on the left, unions or peace movements or anti-nuclear movements, were potentially their entry into american civil society. it s very clear the russians have decided that conservative and right wing organizations like the n.r.a. are the way that they re going to penetrate american civil society. and be the cat among the pigeons here. tom, this is your life s work, a lot of it anyway. does this make you sad at any level that we ha ....