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US court accepts Butina’s guilty plea to one of charges

Her defender said she had pleaded guilty voluntarily

WASHINGTON, December 13. /TASS/. The US Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday accepted the guilty plea of Russian national Maria Butina to one of counts as part of a plea deal and appointed next hearing on her case on February 12.

However Judge Tanya Chutkan did not appoint the judgement date but said the next hearing will be held on February 12.

The judgement date was not appointed at the request of a representative of the US Attorney’s Office who said that Butin is currently cooperating with the investigation and this process may take some time.

Butina’s public defender AJ Cramer stated that she pled guilty on one of the charges brought against her on a voluntary basis.

After the court session, the attorney informed TASS that Butina pleaded guilty voluntarily.

Maria Butina, 30, a graduate student at American University in Washington, was arrested on July 15 ahead of the Helsinki summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. The Russian gun rights activist is facing charges of conspiracy for conducting activities in the interests of a foreign state. Investigators claim that she was engaged in these activities without registering as a foreign agent at the US Department of Justice.

During the July 21 phone conversation with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded Butina’s swift release, adding that the charges against her were trumped-up.