"Maria Butina is not an agent of the Russian Federation," attorney Robert Driscoll, Burtina's legal representation, said in a statement obtained by Sputnik News. Driscoll is the former deputy assistant attorney general and chief of staff, Civil Rights Division, of the US Department of Justice. "She is a Russian national in the United States on a student visa who recently graduated from American University in Washington, DC," he said.
The charge comes three days after US special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian nationals accused of conspiring to hack the Democratic National Committee with spearphishing emails. Hours before the Justice Department announced the charge, US President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin commenced "successful" talks in Helsinki.
"The timing has to be designed to sort of influence the public perception," Loud & Clear host Brian Becker said Monday, since "Trump is saying ‘Let's have better relations, we are going to have better relations with Russia.'"
While allegations that Butina illegally lobbied in the US come amid fervor from Democrats, the intelligence community, and the mainstream media over Mueller's latest indictments and friendly comments made by US President Donald Trump at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Mueller "has not expressed interest" in allowing Butina to interview him as she has requested, according to the statement from Driscoll.
"The substance of the charge in the Complaint is overblown," Butina's lawyer's statement reads. It characterizes the allegation — the sole allegation against Butina — as rendering it "unlawful for a foreign national student in the United States to develop a personal, professional, or networking relationship with an American, or to attend public events in hopes of meeting US political figures." The statement characterizes the charge against Burtina as a "misuse of the Foreign Agent statute, which is designed to punish covert propaganda, not open and public networking by foreign students."
While the substance of Butina's alleged political interference is not included in DoJ documents — nor their statement accompanying the indictment — clues on the internet stem from a June Mother Jones article that says the political organization referenced in the DoJ statement is the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The NRA has long been been demonized by Democrats over allegations of encouraging mass violence and obstructing reform to the US' permissive gun laws, which they argue contribute to the epidemic of violence, particularly school shootings, in the country. "I think the NRA is telling people to shoot us," tweeted Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy.
According to Russian official Aleksandr Torshin, the man believed to be the one Butina was allegedly working for, he and Butina are lifelong members of the NRA. Butina started a gun rights group in Russia called Right to Bear Arms in 2011 and they have together lobbied the Russian government to those ends, according to Mother Jones.
Torshin was under investigation by the FBI in pursuit of allegations that he helped Russia funnel money into the NRA to help Trump's campaign, according to a January article from McClatchy, although no indictments have been issued to that end and no criminal convictions have been made. In US law, a conviction is secured after an allegation is proved "beyond a reasonable doubt." The evidentiary requirements for an indictment are far lower. Torshin was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in April 2018.
According to Butina's attorney, "over a dozen" FBI agents raided her apartment in April. She has "offered repeatedly to answer any questions the [DOJ] had," said Driscoll, an attorney at McGlinchey Stafford. "Rather than avail itself of that opportunity the government chose to arrest Ms. Butina on Sunday" without notifying Butina's attorney.