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Wendy Siegelman @WendySiegelman
, 5 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
While this is new from Friday's filing on Maria Butina, coverage of the sensational side of her escapades shouldn't overshadow how she & Torshin waged a Kremlin-backed multi-year campaign to infiltrate the GOP, the NRA & conservative religious groups
nyti.ms/2oQGY23
The last paragraph is much more significant - Russian gov't officials visited her 6 times so far and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov complained twice about her prosecution to Mike Pompeo - this shows how important Butina is (and was) to the Kremlin
nytimes.com/2018/09/08/us/…
well said @grantstern
The latest Maria Butina filing names political candidate 1 & 2 (likely Walker & Trump), has new details on involvement of Putin/Lavrov before/after Butina's arrest and other new details on Kremlin backed infiltration of US GOP orgs...and MSM all run with the sex claim story🙄
I'm a broken record on this but Oct 7, 2016 Wikileaks began releasing Podesta emails, US blamed Russia for DNC hack & Access Hollywood tape came out. The tape filled the news cycle & Trump was elected. Salacious stories as click bait failed us before.
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Both Paul Manafort & Rick Gates gave data to Konstantin Kilimnik in the spring 2016 - some data was developed by a private polling firm working for the campaign - Manafort asked Gates to tell Kilimnik to pass the data to Oleg Deripaska, HT @painter_nancy nytimes.com/2019/01/08/us/…
Manafort and Gates passed polling data to Kilimnik to be sent to Putin ally Oleg Deripaska

Kilimnik also worked with Sam Patten who consulted for Cambridge Analytica

One of the services provided by Cambridge Analytica was polling
While the identity of the polling company is not known, here's how Cambridge Analytica described their work for the Trump campaign:

"The research team had a huge responsibility in organizing campaigns and polling voters in 17 states across the country."
ca-political.com/casestudies
Read 4 tweets
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Manafort may have shared US campaign polling data w/Kilimnik

Manafort filing is not properly redacted & one section mentions:

"the Government’s allegation that Mr. Manafort lied about sharing polling data with Mr. Kilimnik related to the 2016 presidential campaign."
Kilimnik not only worked with Manafort, he also formed a company in 2015 with Sam Patten, who was a contractor for Cambridge Analytica

There's no evidence Kilimnik worked with Cambridge Analytica, but why would Kilimnik review US election polling data?...
Another redacted section of the filing notes "Manafort “conceded” that he discussed or may have discussed a Ukraine peace plan with Mr. Kilimnik on more than one occasion"
assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5677…
Read 7 tweets
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No news yet, but we may soon learn more about the mystery Mueller case...
The Supreme Court ruled against the mystery company fighting subpoena in Mueller investigation that is identified as a foreign financial institution
DC Circuit's opinion affirming the contempt order in the mystery Mueller-related grand jury case against a foreign financial institution
Read 5 tweets

Related threads

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There's always more >> Accused spy Maria #Butina turned on her Russian charm to secure Russian jet fuel deal with David Keene, NRA president & prominent leader of the conservative movement, his lobbyist wife, & her boyfriend Erickson — The New York Times nytimes.com/2018/09/02/us/…
THREAD on sloppy NYT piece on #Butina. See @john_sipher who says she's not a professional spy but an 'access agent teeing up fools for Russia to compromise.' She develops access & provides targeting information to the professionals, so they know who's vulnerable, who to go after.
@john_sipher There are spies and there are spies. Russia has a dizzying array of intelligence agents, special services & proxies, formal professionals & informal agents like Maria #Butina. @KirkseniyaSF reviews some of the nuances in @KyivPost kyivpost.com/article/opinio… cc @SethAbramson @nytimes
Read 4 tweets
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Butina was recently moved from federal facility in D.C. to jail in Alexandria where Paul Manafort is currently being held.
Life comes at you fast!
Butina also worked with the @OUTDChannel to develop a television show highlighting Putin’s “love of the outdoors” that would feature Putin himself. The Outdoor Channel and the @NRA call themselves “strategic partners”:
Read 23 tweets
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So Maria #Butina also hit up JD Gordon, Trump campaign natsec adviser who notably changed GOP platform on Ukraine to pro-Russia position. (Erickson sounds like her handler and pimp in this WaPo story about her final weeks of 2016 campaign) washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
JD Gordon once said Trump campaign was too disorganized to collude with Russians. Yet he fell right into Butina's honey pot. As I've said before, disorganized and stupid coupled w/ desperation is precisely what made team Trump easy prey for Russian spies.
A simple google search would make you wonder about #Butina. Gun rights are an absurdity in Russia, where more basic rights are lacking. She hangs with Torshin, a Kremlin banker w/ mob ties. But instead of calling FBI, Trump aide Gordon invites her to drinks & a Styx concert (yup)
Read 3 tweets
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What a Russian disinformation campaign looks like: gaslighting, lies, whataboutism and the requisite FU trolling—to deny, distract, dismay. #Butina is literally now the face of Kremlin MFA. Complete w/ hashtag #FreeMariaButina—while Russia jails political prisoners¡!#FreeSentsov
btw This crazy "#FreeMariaButina" disinformation campaign advanced directly from the Russian Foreign Ministry kinda proves US was right to argue Russian diplomats might scoop her up, making her a flight risk. Kudos to prosecutors & judge for the right call rferl.org/a/guns-sex-and…
Maria Butina gets around. Before her gig infiltrating NRA & Republicans, she pushed Russian propaganda in E Ukraine to promote Russia's invasion. At 2014 Donbas rally she trashed new Kyiv govt & said ppl should support "separatists" enigma.ua/articles/krasn…
Read 5 tweets
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THREAD

#Butina arrest breakdown

#Butina #Trump #Russia #Torshin #Treason
1.#Butina wrote an e-mail that said #Torshin had direct contact with Putin about their operations to build up ties with the #USA Religious Right

#Butina #Trump #Russia #Torshin #Treason

2.Early October 2016, #USA PERSON 1 described @NRA as a "conduit" and "VERY private line of communication" between #Kremlin and #GOP leaders, thats roughly ONE MONTH BEFORE ELECTION

#Butina #Trump #Russia #Torshin #Treason

justice.gov/opa/press-rele… …

Read 11 tweets
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A criminal complaint was *unsealed today* in the District of Columbia charging a Russian national with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation within the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General. justice.gov/opa/pr/russian…
Maria Butina, 29, a Russian citizen residing in DC, was arrested on July 15, 2018, in Washington, D.C., and made her initial appearance this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
She was ordered held pending a hearing set for July 18, 2018.
Read 37 tweets

Trending hashtags

#Mueller #HoneyPot #HolyShit #Butina #Russia #Moscow #Unconscionable #Soviet #Facebook #USVIRecovery #MariaButina #TrumpRussia #RICO #VTB #FIVEEYES #Olivia #TrumpPutin #CAP #EUBudget #DebbieWassermanSchultz #Trump #PublicHealth #PrinceAlwaleed #WhereWeGoOneWeGoAll #PuertoRicoRelief

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