Thread by @WendySiegelman

An interesting detail about Freedom Fest 2015 where Maria Butina "happened" to ask Trump about sanctions

Trump invited Phil Ruffin on stage to speak at that event

Phil Ruffin co-owns a hotel w/Trump in Las Vegas & flew his jet with Trump to attend 2013 Miss Universe in Moscow

https://twitter.com/Delavegalaw/status/1072163885292019712

Here's a photo of Phil Ruffin 'getting a shoulder rub' from Trump at Freedom Fest 2015, there's no indication Ruffin knows Butina, but Ruffin has been seriously under the radar in the Trump Russia story, and it's interesting he was at this event
reviewjournal.com/news/politics-…

Phil Ruffin with Trump and the Agalarov's at the Miss Universe Moscow in 2013

https://twitter.com/TrickFreee/status/884722754427117569

Phil Ruffin who married his Ukrainian-born wife at Mar-a-Lago in 2008 w/Trump as best man said Trump has no business interests in Russia, hasn’t borrowed money "in" Russia & if Trump had Ruffin would have been in on the deal

Ruffin must know a few things
kansas.com/news/business/…

At Freedom Fest 2016 Maria Butina appeared in interviews w/Saul Annuzis, who said Freedom Fest brings together Libertarian wing of the Republican party, the NRA, the Russian equivalent of the NRA, the Atlas Foundation & the Free State Project New Hampshire

Here's my article with @CamelCitySquid on Maria Butina and Saul Annuzis, a GOP operative who is linked to the NRA, the RNC, to Robert Mercer, and Ted Cruz and whose son worked at Cambridge Analytica
medium.com/@wsiegelman/al…

Circling back to Freedom Fest 2015 when Butina asked Trump about sanctions & separately Trump invited Phil Ruffin to speak

Here's Phil Ruffin in Moscow with Yulya Alferova who ran social media for Miss Universe Moscow (and knew Butina & her boss Torshin)

https://twitter.com/USseriously/status/933587870211805184

Here's Yulya Alferova who worked on Trump Miss Universe Moscow 2013 in a photo found by @USseriously (from a seemingly unrelated event) with Maria Butina's boss (aka handler) Alexander Torshin

https://twitter.com/USseriously/status/933580851048304640

Here's a photo found by @olgaNYC1211 of Yulya Alferova who worked on Trump's Miss Universe Moscow 2013 at different event in 2014 with Maria Butina

https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/1022692123135627264

Per Politico story by @JoshMeyerDC in July 2015 the same month Butina asked Trump a question at Freedom Fest about sanctions, her partner Paul Erickson reached out to Sam Nunberg about asking Trump to meet with Butina HT @yottapoint
politico.com/story/2018/09/…

https://twitter.com/yottapoint/status/1071794413221728257

While Butina and Trump have many common links - the video below of Freedom Fest 2015 shows at the 9:05 min mark that Butina did not ask Trump the first question and it appears he picked her from one of two lines for audience members to ask questions