Real-Life 'Red Sparrow'? Court filings allege Russian agent offered sex for access
By Jack Date,
Matthew Mosk
Pete Madden
Jul 18, 2018, 1:34 PM ET
A new court filing alleges Maria Butina, the Russian gun-rights activist who was recently arrested and charged as a foreign agent, offered “sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization” as part of a bid to gain access and make contacts in American political circles.
The charge comes on the morning of Butina’s first court appearance in Washington, D.C., where she is facing criminal charges of conspiracy and failure to register as a foreign agent that could see her face up to ten years in prison. It is perhaps the most salacious of several explosive new details provided by U.S. government prosecutors in the latest court filings as they seek to keep her locked up pending trial.
Butina, the filing notes, is believed to have “cohabited and been involved in a personal relationship” with an unnamed U.S. person for the sole purpose of developing her alleged influence operation, sparking comparisons to the recent spy thriller “Red Sparrow” starring Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian femme fatale.
“This relationship does not represent a strong tie to the United States because Butina appears to treat it as simply a necessary aspect of her activities,” the filing said. “For example on at least one occasion, Butina offered an individual other than U.S. Person 1 sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization. Further, in papers seized by the FBI, Butina complained about living with U.S. Person 1 and expressed disdain for continuing to cohabitant with U.S. Person 1.”
The 12-page filing quotes from electronic messages in which a Russian official compares her to Anna Chapman, the red-headed Russian spy who operated under deep cover until she was discovered and deported as part of a prisoner swap in 2010.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/real..._interest_band
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