Between the latest court filing on Michael Flynn, the latest guilty plea from Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulos’ release from prison, the latest filings from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, and prosecutors directly implicating Donald Trump in a felony, you might be tempted to think there wouldn’t be any surprising court developments for a while.
But you’d be wrong. Rachel noted on the show on Thursday that it looked like the Maria Butina case was heading towards some sort of resolution fairly soon, and as NBC News reported this morning, that resolution has apparently arrived.
Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina is likely to plead guilty as soon as this week, according to court papers filed Monday.
Lawyers for Butina and the Justice Department say in the court filing that her criminal case has been “resolved.” […]
Butina, 30, is accused of acting as an agent of Russia in the Washington, D.C. area and faces charges of conspiracy and failing to register as a foreign agent.
There are some key elements of this story that are not yet clear, including whether Butina has struck some kind of deal with prosecutors in exchange for a guilty plea. That should come into focus in the next few days.
That said, if the suspected Russian secret agent is prepared to start cooperating with the Justice Department, it’s a safe bet Butina would have some interesting insights to share.
As those who watch the show regularly probably know, in 2015, Butina was the first person to get then-candidate Donald Trump to talk on the record about U.S. sanctions against Russia — and the fact that he wanted them dropped.









