"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-07-20T01:26:30Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/07/20/who-is-maria-butina-kaye-pkg-ac-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="Who is Maria Butina Kaye PKG ac vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="Who is Maria Butina Kaye PKG ac vpx"
data-video-tags="continents and regions,eastern europe,europe,maria butina,misc people,north america,randi kaye,russia,the americas,united states"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2018-07-20T01:26:30Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/07/20/who-is-maria-butina-kaye-pkg-ac-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="Who is Maria Butina Kaye PKG ac vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="Who is Maria Butina Kaye PKG ac vpx"
data-video-tags="continents and regions,eastern europe,europe,maria butina,misc people,north america,randi kaye,russia,the americas,united states"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2024-06-13T16:27:27Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/06/13/marjorie-taylor-greene-donald-trump-capitol-visit-speaker-johnson-digvid.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="marjorie taylor greene donald trump capitol visit speaker johnson digvid"
data-first-publish-slug="marjorie taylor greene donald trump capitol visit speaker johnson digvid"
data-video-tags=""
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
MTG says Trump told her to 'be nice' to Speaker Johnson
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2024-06-03T18:00:41Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/06/03/fauci-death-threats-covid-origins-hearing-sot-dle-digvid.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="fauci death threats covid origins hearing sot dle digvid"
data-first-publish-slug="fauci death threats covid origins hearing sot dle digvid"
data-video-tags=""
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Fauci gets emotional discussing threats made against his family
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2024-06-01T16:40:38Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/06/01/smr-charlamagne-tha-god-on-black-voters-digvid.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="SMR Charlamagne tha God on black voters digvid"
data-first-publish-slug="SMR Charlamagne tha God on black voters digvid"
data-video-tags=""
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Charlamagne tha God: America has zero protection from people like Donald Trump
Maria Butina’s defense team is fighting back against the prosecutors’ sentencing memo in her case, which came in Friday night before her sentencing this week and unexpectedly asked for more jail time for her.
Prosecutors on Friday filed a pre-sentencing memo asking 18 months jail time for Butina, in a case where they’ve alleged scandalous actions and had to walk back some of them, yet where they still allege the Russian woman sought to hurt the US in her work as a foreign agent.
“Activities at issue in this case are part of Russia’s broader scheme to acquire information and establish relationships and communication channels that can be exploited to the Russian Federation’s benefit,” prosecutors wrote in their pre-sentencing memo Friday.
They say she was not a traditional spy or “trained intelligence officer,” but sought to help Russia at the expense of US national security.
In this strongly worded filing, her defense attorneys, who previously had asked the sentence to be the time she has already served, reiterated that she is not a spy or Russian intelligence agent and has helped both the Senate Intelligence Committee as it investigated her contact and former Russian central banker Alexander Torshin, and prosecutors extensively, while asking the judge to throw out some of the prosecutors’ discussion of her activities for Russia.
“Maria is not a trained intelligence officer nor a spy in any sense,” her defense attorneys wrote. “The government knows that. Its prosecutors and federal agents behind closed doors have all but expressed that. There is no evidence to support that, and they have not charged her with any espionage-linked crime that addresses that.”
“All Maria has done is accepted responsibility for conspiring to act as an ‘agent’—not a secret agent, not an intelligence agent—for Torshin, who was a friend but former foreign official of the Russian Central Bank,” her attorneys continued.