Nearly a year ago, the New York Times carried the story of the master spy Maria Butina (post). One photo showed her as a student pilot in a Piper Warrior (market value: $30,000?). Later it turned out that she was planning to move to South Dakota in order to more effectively continuing her spying on the Federal government. Vladimir Putin claimed not to know her (CNBC), exactly as we’d expect if she were a critical Kremlin asset.
Now this from CNN… “How the case against Maria Butina began to crumble”:
Prosecutors, meanwhile, have acknowledged that Butina is no Russian spy. But they insist her crime was still nefarious and that she acted as an “access agent” to help spot people who could be recruited as intelligence assets down the road.
“Butina was not a spy in the traditional sense of trying to gain access to classified information to send back to her home country. She was not a trained intelligence officer,” prosecutors acknowledged in a court filing. But, her actions “had the potential to damage the national security of the United States.”
Maybe next time our counterintelligence agents can be trained to look for spies in turbine-powered aircraft?
[U.S. taxpayers, in addition to paying for the investigation and prosecution, now also get to pay for 18 months of incarceration, Butina’s sentence for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist.]
Related:
- https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2018/07/21/sex-on-the-job-american-versus-russian-editions/ (the initial articles claimed that she was trading sex for valuable information; it later transpired that the purported master spy was getting paid so much by Putin that she needed a 56-year-old male sex partner to pay her college tuition; he was charged with “money laundering”)
- Rudolf Hess, sentenced to the same 18-month prison term for attempting to overthrow the German government in 1923
U.S. taxpayers, in addition to paying for the investigation and prosecution, now also get to pay for 18 months of incarceration, Butina’s sentence for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist.
I think that a commenter went over this yesterday. The fines and back taxes collected from Paul Manafort should be enough to cover the investigation.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/12/mueller-russia-investigation-costs/2736507002/
Regarding taxpayers having to pay for Butina’s incarceration, I haven’t heard of any plans to raise taxes to pay those costs, so we don’t we need to worry about, right?
What a fantastic idea! As soon as we have a budget for Russian spies we should set a quota on how many Russian citizens to interrogate.
Well done! And at no cost to the American taxpayer!
Did not want to comment as have nothing to say on the subject except not liking Mr. Ericsson but does Vince read his own posts? From Vince post, “A handful of banks and the Trump Tower Residential Condominium Board have lined up to argue that they’re entitled to parts of the properties and investment accounts valued at about $26.7 million that the former Trump campaign chairman has been forced to give up as part of plea agreement with Mueller’s team. Included in the package of New York real estate is a $7.3 million compound in the Hamptons and a $3.8 million apartment in Manhattan’s Trump Tower.” This is red herring of course, US taxpayers will see nothing of this, and Trump tower probably just gets the balance of Manafort’s mortgage, as do other banks. Not likely a large gain for them, just a debt collection Nothing for US taxpayers, maybe even a tax write of for banks for unpaid mortgages. Mueller probe reported $25 million last December, and reported as of last September. Total current estimates are about $35 million based on average Mueller spending. Minimal estimate is $31 million.
This investigation of course has nothing to do with spending and all has to do with how it started and those fake dossiers. Not Mueller fault per se but he could skip on that political literature after he listed his findings on absence of Trump- Russian collusion.
I don’t think there is any way that the Mueller Investigation cost $35 million. See
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/24/mueller-report-trump-campaign-investigation-numbers/3263353002/
for how 19 lawyers and 40 FBI agents and other investigators worked on this. The lawyers alone, including paralegals, secretaries, office space, court reporters for depositions, etc., would have cost in the neighborhood of $35 million over a two-year period.
I read that Mueller investigation also logged some international flight miles. It is not in the article. maybe they used their frequent flyer miles?
Perplexed: So you read the USA Today article and you saw a sentence that begins “A handful of banks and the Trump Tower Residential Condominium Board have lined up to argue…”? So you must assume that their arguments will prevail in court and that they’ll get their hands on Manafort’s money and the government won’t? That’s a big assumption there. Even if they end up with some of those funds, what would that make the total cost of the investigation to the taxpayer – 5 or 10 million dollars? That would work out to be a few cents per American. Eventually you have to see that this whole cost issue is just another distraction.
Perplexed,
It looks like a strange idea to ask if a writer can read.
The writer is expected to write; reading what they wrote is a responsibility for the readers!
Vince, If banks will not get them money then it is minimum $26 million tax write off for them. So add _ $26 million to what Muller investigation real cost was.
Quite disturbing how US media will grasp at straws to keep the anti-Russian hysteria going. Judging by the headlines Butina almost brought down the whole US gov’t. She belongs in a Marvel movie.
It would be awesome to see a single-engine piston aircraft in a Marvel movie. And a 300-hour CFI in the right seat while the hero in the left seat practices turns around a point!
Russians are the enemy. A fellow poster has suggested (in another thread) that we should wage a war on them. I have no idea what time the nuclear bombing starts, but I hope there is still time to fetch some popcorn and a gas mask.
In my experience American women feel threatened by Russian women. So any way to drag down the competition is a win for the native women!
Truly native women? Like Liz Warren? Frankly, I don’t see any threat, but in full disclosure I have not self-identified as her spouse.
@Vince,
“That would work out to be a few cents per American. Eventually you have to see that this whole cost issue is just another distraction.”
Very true. But at the same time, our politicians are distracting and further dumbing down Americans by misplacing the Russian meddling with our election as if it started in 2016 and started by Trump (it started in 2014) and as if Trump and his inner circle are puppet to Putin (no such proof exist) and as if the Russian’s & Wikileaks were the reason why Trump won (really?!).
That $35 million, which as you pointed out “work out to be a few cents per American” could have been better spent on educating Americans on how to see that what’s on FB is not real news, but a drama life of some alternative reality. After all, if the Russians were able to influence Americans by spending few thousands on FB’s adds and writing fake news, I’m sure we could have done much better by spending that $35 million to counter the Russians on FB. No?
Finally, who said that our government doesn’t meddle with other nations elections and affairs?
Trump said, Grab them by the p***y. Is that the best way to handle Russian spies?
Is Trump better than Mueller in pointing out the true risks to the American psycho? (or should it be, psyche?)
And where is Toucan Sam when you need him most?