Milbank: Russia isn't targeting America? Meet Maria Butina
The yawning gap between the world as it exists and the world as President Trump sees it was on vivid display Wednesday.
A few minutes after noon, reporters in the White House were being ushered out of a Cabinet meeting they had been allowed to witness. One called out a question: “Is Russia still targeting the U.S., Mr. President?”
Trump replied with a shake of the head: “Thank you very much. No.”
“No? You don’t believe that to be the case?”
“No,” Trump repeated (though his spokeswoman would try her best later to undo it).
Just over an hour later, a striking young woman, with orange hair and a matching prison jumpsuit, was led, scowling, into Courtroom Four of the U.S. District Courthouse at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. According to the Justice Department — Trump’s Justice Department — this woman, Maria Butina, is a Russian national who, until her arrest Sunday, “engaged in a years-long conspiracy to work covertly in the United States as an undeclared agent of the Russian Federation.” Her “covert influence campaign,” directed by a senior Russian government official to advance Russia’s interests, involved international coordination, planning and deceit.
How is it possible that Trump can assert that Russia is not targeting the United States — three days after he suggested it didn’t interfere with the 2016 election — while just a few blocks away, his own administration is prosecuting a Russian for targeting the United States?
Butina did not speak but ran her hands through her long hair as her lawyer said she would be pleading not guilty. She sat, conferring quietly with lawyers, as prosecutors expanded on a written court filing packed with allegations right out of “The Americans”: a duplicitous romantic relationship, an offer of sex for employment, a wire transfer to Russia and a possible plan to flee the country or be “exfiltrated” by Russian intelligence.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/milbank-russia-isnt-targeting-america-meet-maria-butina/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=41e2fb8df4-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-41e2fb8df4-228635337