WASHINGTON – Maria Butina admitted to being part of a conspiracy to develop an unregistered Russian influence campaign in the U.S. in a packed courtroom Thursday. The audience included not only the usual pack of journalists but other spectators, including an activist who often shows up at Russia-related hearings at Congress with a T-shirt that says “spy.”
Before the hearing, observers were warned by court staff that leaving and returning the courtroom would not be allowed. There was speculation outside the courtroom before the proceedings that the activist might disrupt the proceedings, but he did not.
Butina entered the courtroom after the proceedings had begun. She wore a dark green jail outfit, as well as a white long sleeve shirt underneath with a hole in the left elbow. Her hair, in a braid, was a duller shade of red than in the photos that have been blasted across the media of her cavorting with prominent figures in Republican politics and showing off her pro-gun rights activism that was her entry point into those GOP circles.
She was stone-faced for Thursday’s proceedings.
Plea hearings tend to be a mechanical affairs, where the judge goes through a tedious list of questions about the defendant’s mental state and understanding of the action he or she is about to take. The defendant’s answers are usually terse, and Butina’s were no exception — though she brought to them her Russian accent.
At one point, Judge Tanya Chutkan asked Butina to clarify the spelling of her name. Butina said that the Russian version of her first name includes two i’s.
But before moving through the usual script Chutkan had two other issues to clear up: to publicly explain why she appointed Butina a public defender to serve as her advisory counsel, and to inquire with her attorney, Robert Driscoll, about his previous claims in court filings that she was suffering psychologically because she had been segregated from the general population at the jail where she is being detained. He said that Butina had been granted certain accommodations since those filings and was “doing well mentally.” Chutkan then moved on to typical mechanics of a plea agreement hearing.
Chutkan asked a separate set of questions addressing Butina’s status as a foreign national. As a non-citizen, her guilty plea may result in her deportation and/or her being precluded from getting a visa or citizenship in the future, the judge cautioned. The judge admitted she didn’t know how Butina’s potential deportation would impact any sentence of supervised release she may impose.
Chutkan was thorough and moved slowly through all the questions, and at no point did Butina appear to have any trouble understanding what was happening.
The proceeding lasted more than an hour. It ended with a discussion of a subpoena Driscoll had sought for records at American University, where Butina went to graduate school. Chutkan — who has received requests from students that she quash the subpoena — assumed that Driscoll would withdraw the subpoena now that Butina had reached a plea agreement. The judge seemed exasperated when he said she would like to continue to pursue it to use the records for Butina’s sentencing.
Chutkan, with resignation, noted that that meant she would have to deal with the motions from the students.
