Feds have admitted they misunderstood text messages they previously used to claim that accused Russian spy Maria Butina offered sex for access to political figures.
The government had alleged Butina offered sex to someone other than her boyfriend “in exchange for a position within a special interest organization.”
Butina’s attorney repeatedly disputed this, and in a court filing late Friday, federal prosecutors said the government was “mistaken” in its understanding of texts used to back up the claim.
The feds said she still shouldn’t be released from jail on bond and that other evidence calls into question her commitment to her boyfriend, which prosecutors have used to justify their request that she stay detained.
Her boyfriend, identified as “U.S. Person 1” in court papers, reportedly matches the description of Paul Erickson, a South Dakota Republican operative with whom Butina previously told the Senate Intelligence Committee she’d had a relationship.
“Even granting that the government’s understanding of this particular text conversation was mistaken, other communications and materials in the government’s possession (and produced to the defense) call into doubt the defendant’s claim that her relationship with U.S. Person 1 is a sufficiently strong tie to ensure her appearance in court to face the charges against her if she is released,” prosecutors wrote in the court filing.
Butina, 29, pleaded not guilty to charges she was acting as an unregistered agent of the Russian Federation in July. A bond hearing is set for Monday.
Prosecutors say Butina was using Erickson for his access to the National Rifle Association and influential political figures while secretly working as an agent for the Russian government.