'I am deeply embarrassed.' Russian agent Maria Butina sentenced to 18 months in federal prison
Kristine Phillips, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A federal judge sentenced Maria Butina to a total of 18 months in prison on Friday for her role in a Russian effort to infiltrate U.S. political organizations.
The sentence means Butina will serve another nine months in custody before she is deported to Russia. She already has spent nine months in jail while her case was pending.
Butina, 30, was accused of engaging in a years-long campaign to court politically connected Americans and infiltrate political organizations on behalf of the Kremlin. She was indicted and arrested in July and pleaded guilty in December to acting as a foreign agent for Russia without registering in the United States.
Read more at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/26/russian-agent-maria-butina-sentenced-18-months-prison-infiltrate-us-politics/3578669002/
Carry on, I thought this whole story was pretty bush league though.
I'm not trivializing this. Maybe small instances need to be prosecuted thoroughly but we've got real spies out there willing to give out some very pertinent info on national security.
