and enrolled as a graduate student at american university in washington, d.c. maria butina. her lawyer, robert driscoll, says she was just pursuing an education. her behavior is that of a normal 20 something-year-old student activist. there is nothing nefarious about it. innocent college students, in my view, don t go setting up shell companies thousand of miles away from where they go to college. oh, wow. butina did. the day after trump s primary, she set up a company all the way in south dakota. her lawyer says it was used to fund her studies and bank records will show there was nothing illegal. she s a student in an honest, honorable person. senator wyden suspects the company could have been part of a financial network that helped the nra raise the $30 million it spent to help put donald trump
in the white house. that is central to the whole debate. did the nra use shell companies like the one maria butina set up in order to achieve this unprecedented level of political spending? do you think that actually happened, that the russians threw these shell companies were funneling money to the nra? the fact that clearly over a period of years and there were trips to russia and political meetings here and discussions with the highest-ranking officials at the nra, i find it hard to just accept the explanation that this was all just innocent activity back and forth between two countries. the nra says it only accepted $2,500 in russian money between 2015 and 2018, and denies any of it went toward a political campaign. butina is now in a detention
essentially political operative 101, go out and build friendships, get people who are willing to do favors for you. soon butina was rubbing shoulders with some of the republican establishment s heavy hitters. future national security advisor john bolton even recorded a patriotic video endorsement. we never forget the joyful optimism that marked the beginning of our democratic history. we wish our russian friends that same hope. in 2015, butina went to vegas to attend freedom fest, the woodstock for the libertarian movement where candidate donald trump was making an early campaign appearance. from the floor, butina threw him a question about mother russia. if you were elected president, what will be your foreign politics especially in relationships with my country? i know putin and i ll tell you what, we get along with putin. next butina moved to the u.s.
i ve never heard a bad word about him. so, klein preston didn t have any suspicions about torshin, not a hint. he liked him so much he introduced him to the leaders of the nra. and the rest, as they say, is history. since our report, torshin has been placed under u.s. sanction and his assistant maria butina is charged with conspiracy. she didn t want to do another interview on camera with us, but he did tell us he hasn t changed his opinion about torshin or butina. he said they just wanted to develop relationships in the united states. well, that s one thing that s not really in dispute. maria butina was all about developing relationships. maria butina was not exactly a clandestine spy operating in the shadows, but, boy, did she like to play one.
it was a double bluff. according to the government s case against her, butina was an agent of the russian federation. maria butina did not fly in out of the sky. democrat ron wyden sits on the senate intelligence committee which questioned butina for eight hours. he thinks she wasn t acting alone. she and alexander torshin, a very powerful patron, very close to vladimir putin, spent years working to worm their way into our political system. they were quite the pair, a passionate young woman from siberia and a veteran russian operator. torshin is a politician, a banker, and according to spanish officials, a money laundering crime boss. in these police surveillance recordings which were recently shared with the fbi, russian