Tag Archives: espionage

CNN reports: In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN. A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump …

CNN reports: A fire aboard a Russian deepwater submersible killed 14 Russian crew members, state news agencies reported Tuesday, citing the Ministry of Defense. The blaze broke out Monday while the craft was carrying out research in Russian territorial waters, and 14 submariners died from smoke inhalation, the ministry said, according to the state-run news agency Tass. The vessel is …

USA Today reports: WikiLeaks found Julian Assange was charged Thursday with conspiring to obtain national security secrets in what prosecutors have described as one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history, the Justice Department announced Thursday. In all, federal prosecutors filed 18 new charges against Assange. They include allegations that he aided and abetted former Army intelligence …

NPR reports: Maria Butina says this is all a big misunderstanding. Was she part of the vast Russian government effort to influence politics within the United States? “Absolutely not,” she said. All she wanted, Butina said, was to be a “peace-builder” between Russia and the United States. The Russian woman who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to serve as a …

Buzzfeed News reports: Maria Butina, the Russian gun rights activist who pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent for the Russian government in the US, was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison, although she’ll get credit for the nine months she’s already served. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said she agreed with prosecutors that Butina …

NBC News reports: Yujing Zhang, the Chinese citizen arrested at Mar-a-Lago in March while President Donald Trump was at his nearby golf club, was indicted Friday. The short, two-page indictment gave no new information about how Zhang allegedly got into Trump’s resort in Florida two weeks ago. She was charged with two counts — unlawful entry of restricted buildings and …

CBS News Miami reports: A Chinese woman accused of illegally entering President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club with a flash drive containing malware, also had numerous electronic devices and thousands in cash stashed in her hotel room. Prosecutors say they found multiple electronic devices in her hotel room, including a signal detector that can seek out detect hidden cameras, another cell …

The Daily Beast reports: Paul Erickson, the American political operative and boyfriend of admitted Russian agent Maria Butina, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in South Dakota on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. The U.S. attorney for the district of South Dakota is handling the prosecution, which is separate from the case that was lodged against …

Reuters reports: Russia said on Wednesday that it had caught former U.S. marine Paul Whelan, who is being held in Russia on spying charges, while he was in the act of carrying out illegal activities in his Moscow hotel room. Whelan, a former U.S. marine who also holds British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service …

The Daily Beast reports: The Kremlin has long denied that it had anything to do with the infiltration of the NRA and the broader American conservative movement. A U.S. intelligence report reviewed by The Daily Beast tells a different story. Alexander Torshin, the Russian central bank official who spent years aggressively courting NRA leaders, briefed the Kremlin on his efforts …

The New York Times reports: In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation. The inquiry carried explosive …

The Associated Press reports: Russia’s deputy foreign minister brushed back suggestions Saturday that an American being held in Moscow on suspicion of spying could be exchanged for a Russian citizen. Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, who also holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship, was detained in Moscow in late December. His arrest has led to speculation that Russia could …

The Washington Post reports: The Marine Corps found Paul Whelan, the American citizen detained by Russia on espionage charges, guilty of attempting to steal more than $10,000 worth of currency from the U.S. government while deployed to Iraq in 2006 and bouncing nearly $6,000 worth of checks around the same time, according to records obtained by The Washington Post. The …

The New York Times reports: The Russian authorities have brought espionage charges against an American citizen, Paul N. Whelan, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, the news agency Interfax reported on Thursday. Mr. Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir A. Zherebenkov, who said he spent much of Wednesday with Mr. Whelan, said he had found his client in an …

Bloomberg News reports: The U.S. government fears for the safety of Maria Butina, the 30-year-old Russian who’s cooperating with U.S. prosecutors after admitting she failed to register as a foreign agent, according to a court filing. “Although the fact of defendant Butina’s cooperation is now public, the details of her transportation to and from the jail are not,” Justice Department …

Talking Points Memo reports: Accused Russian agent Maria Butina pleaded guilty in a Washington, D.C. federal courtroom today to a conspiracy charge, according to reports from the courthouse. CNN reported that Butina admitted at the plea hearing to “knowingly engaging in conspiracy against the United States.” Butina ran much of her infiltration campaign while studying at a master’s program at …

CNN reports: The Russian government claims that Maria Butina, the accused Russian spy who had cultivated connections with the National Rifle Association before the 2016 US election, was “tortured” while in US custody. In an exclusive interview with CNN Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova alleged that Butina was treated to a “medieval inquisition” while in detention and said …

The New York Post reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday claimed none of his intelligence chiefs knows “anything about” alleged Russian spy Maria Butina. The 30-year-old grad student is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to conspiracy for working with a GOP operative and a Russian official to establish unofficial lines of communication between US politicians and the Kremlin. But …

ABC News reports: Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian gun rights activist who stands accused developing a covert influence operation in the United States, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and cooperate with federal, state and local authorities in any ongoing investigations. She admits, as part of the deal, according to a copy obtained by ABC News that is expected …

Talking Points Memo reports: Prosecutors and Maria Butina — a Russian national who’s been accused of being an unregistered foreign agent — requested Monday that a judge schedule a hearing this week so that Butina can change her plea. The filing was a suggestion that Butina and prosecutors may have reached a plea deal in the case. Butina had pleaded …