When Butina was first arrested on July 16, prosecutors leveled a series of salacious accusations, including that she had tried to seduce some of her contacts, as part of the effort to build back-channel communications and influence people. The 30-year-old, who was in the United States on a student visa, infiltrated the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby and made contact with many high-level Republicans.
"Guilty", Butina said with a light accent in entering her plea with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan at a hearing Thursday morning in federal court in Washington.
In a statement Wednesday, Erickson's lawyer, William Hurd, said, "Paul Erickson is a good American". "He has done nothing to harm our country and never would". Butina and her Russian handler, a figure prosecutors label in court papers as "Russian Official" but who has been identified as Alexander Torshin, an official in Russia's central bank, persuaded members of the gun rights group to visit Moscow in 2015.
Throughout the statement of offense, Erickson appears as "U.S. Person 1", working with Butina to establish contacts with the Republican Party and NRA, including organizing a Russian delegation to the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast.
Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be "incognito". Although special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating links between that effort and individuals in Trump's campaign, Butina was prosecuted by the USA attorney's office in Washington.
Comics aim to mimic things in the real world all the time, but it is surreal when things in the real world give you a sense of deja vu from the comics, and that is certainly the case with real-life Russian Black Widow Maria Butina. "I think she was treated and is still treated probably as a terrorist or something like that", she added.
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The complaint against Butina, however, did not explicitly mention Trump's campaign.
Accused Russian agent Maria Butina pleaded guilty in federal court today to one conspiracy charge, and has agreed to cooperate with the investigation. "This will be somebody who could tell us more about that". One of the two Americans referenced in the prosecution's criminal complaint was Paul Erickson, a conservative United States political activist who was romantically linked to Butina.
Her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, estimates that she could face up to six months in prison, Reuters news agency reports.
"She risks 15 years in jail".
On July 18, after Butina had been arrested, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted that her arrest was created to undermine the "positive results" of President Trump's meeting with Putin at the Helsinki Summit.
Butina told the judge that she understands she is likely to be deported back to Russian Federation after serving any prison sentence.
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