Alleged Russian Agent Maria Butina Had Ties to Trump Campaign National Security Staffer: Report
The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet website August 3, 2018:
The new report reveals closer connections with the campaign than had previously been disclosed.
Credit: Pavel Starikov
Maria Butina, a Russian national who has been arrested on charges of working secretly as an agent of the Kremlin, interacted with one-time Trump campaign staffer J.D. Gordon in the final months of the 2016 campaign, according to a new report from the Washington Post.
Gordon reportedly served as the director of national security on Trump’s campaign until he left in 2016 to work on the transition team.
According to emails obtained by the Post, Gordon and Butina corresponded socially over email in the waning days of the campaign. Gordon reportedly invited her to attend a concert and his birthday party in October. While the interactions seem innocuous enough on their face, prosecutors allege that Butina used ostensibly social interactions as part of her intelligence work.