Scoundrel Media Complicity in Framing Russian National in US
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
On July 14, conveniently ahead of July 16 Putin/Trump summit talks, Russian national Mariia Butina was arrested on charges of “conspiracy to act as a Russian agent within the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General” - no evidence cited proving it.
Arraigned in federal court on Wednesday, she was charged and held without bail, claiming she’s a flight risk.
Her lawyer Robert Driscoll denounced the charges against her, explaining she’s a visa-approved American University graduate, earning a master’s degree in international relations - stressing she’s “not an agent of the Russian Federation,” adding:
She’s “not a proxy for any of the serious and substantial issues that our country has with Russia right now.”
Charges against her without credible evidence are baseless. Butina is a gun enthusiast supporter of the constitutional right to bear arms.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced her arrest, calling it politically motivated, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying:
“You get the sense that someone grabbed a watch and a calculator to determine when the decision on Maria Butina’s arrest should be adopted to maximally undermine the outcomes of the summit.”
Her arrest “was…deliberately timed…fulfilling an outright political order coming…from the forces that continue to stoke Russophobic hysteria” in America.
“It seems that the FBI is doing a political put-up job instead of carrying out its duty to fight crime.”
“We understand that some powers that continue to whip up anti-Russian hysteria are behind all this, as they have been making up bogus stories about Russia’s interference with America’s domestic affairs.”
“For our part, we are taking all the possible measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the Russian citizen.”
If convicted of dubious charges against her, Butina faces up to 15 years in federal prison - for being a Russian national at the wrong time in America, a police state operating extrajudicially.
Media scoundrels jumped all over Butina’s arrest, using it as red meat for endless Russia bashing, ignoring what appears to be a diabolical political arrest - her prosecution coming to continue stoking anti-Russia hysteria in America, preventing any chance for improved bilateral relations.
The NYT practically pronounced Butina guilty by accusation, calling her a “suspected secret agent” despite no evidence proving it - adding she “used sex in (a) covert plan,” according to prosecutors the broadsheet failed to challenge.
The Times: Butina was “accused of being a covert agent pursued a brazen effort to infiltrate conservative circles and influence powerful Republicans while she secretly was in contact with Russian intelligence operatives, a senior Russian official and a billionaire oligarch close to the Kremlin…”
“She carried out her campaign through a series of deceptions that began in 2014, if not earlier, prosecutors said.”
“She lied to obtain a student visa to pursue graduate work at American University in 2016. Apparently hoping for a work visa that would grant her a longer stay, she offered one American sex in exchange for a job.”
The Times and prosecutors it cited presented no evidence supporting charges against Butina - another shameful episode in the way the US operates.
The neocon CIA house organ Washington Post disgracefully headlined “Russia’s not meddling? Then explain Maria Butina,” saying without proof or other justification:
“Her ‘covert influence campaign,’ directed by a senior Russian government official to advance Russia’s interests, involved international coordination, planning and deceit,” adding:
“How is it possible that Trump can assert that Russia is not targeting the United States…while just a few blocks away, his own administration is prosecuting a Russian for targeting the United States?”
Repeated days of shame define how America operates - a rogue state at home and abroad, defiling the rule of law, masquerading as democratic, its media establishment complicit in its high crimes through disinformation, Big Lies and fake news, truth-telling on vital issues suppressed.
Constitutionally affirmed due process and equal protection under law are meaningless figures of speech in America.
They’re rights afforded only to the nation’s privileged class, not its ordinary citizens, never to anyone called an enemy of the state - especially not Muslims, people of color and Russian nationals.
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