Russian agent Maria Butina sentenced to 18 months in prison

Maria Butina, the Russian agent who failed to register as a foreign agent and plotted to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Washington, D.C., federal judge on Friday.

Butina pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to act as a Russian agent in the U.S. for her attempts to exert influence over conservative organizations, including the National Rifle Association.

The FBI arrested her in July, and she has remained in federal custody since, being held in solitary confinement in an Alexandria detention center.

U.S. District Judge Tayna Chutkan granted Butina credit for the nine months she has already served in an Alexandria, Virginia, prison. She also ordered Butinato be sent home to Russia upon completion of her sentence.

“It is because she did not register that her conduct was so dangerous and a threat to our country’s democratic institutions,” Judge Chutkan said, later adding Butina’s actions jeopardized national security.

The penalty for failing to register as a foreign agent is five years. But prosecutors had asked for 18 months, citing the “substantial assistance” she provided investigators as part of her plea deal.

Addressing the court, Butina said she was “embarrassed and ashamed” of her crime and denied she was a Russian agent.

“I came to the U.S., not under any orders, but with hope and now nothing remains but penitence,” she told the court.

“I love them dearly, but I harmed them morally and financially,” she said of her parents. “They [are] suffering from all of that. I destroyed my own life as well.”

Butina is the first Russian national convicted of attempting to influence American policy in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Her case was not brought by special counsel Robert Mueller, who was investigating Russian election interference. Instead, it was handled by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C.

Butina’s attorneys say her efforts were motivated by a sincere interest in improving relations between the United States and Russia.They say her failure to register as a foreign agent was a mistake, not a deliberate attempt to flaunt the law.

"Maria is not a spy,” said attorney Alfred Carry. “She’s not intelligence. She’s never been employed by the Russian government. She knows of no secret codes, safehouses, illegals. She has never engaged in covert activity, and she has never lied to our government.”

“Maria is not a proxy for the Russian government,” he said. “She is not a proxy for the Russian 13 who were indicted.”

“These friendship dinners were not a bad thing,” he said. “It’s not like they were plotting behind the scenes to infect the United States with Manchurian candidates.

A graduate student at American University, Butina worked to establish connections with senior officials at the NRA and the Republican Party. She dubbed her efforts the “Diplomacy Project,” viewing influential conservative circles and gun rights groups as a way to ultimately connect with the winner of the 2016 election, whom she correctly predicted would be President Trump, according to court documents.