maria butina said she conspired to act as an illegal foreign agent. she is cooperating and sharing information on who directed her to infiltrate one of the most important organizations in republican politics, the national rifle association. jessica schneider joins us from outside the white house in

maria butina had previously pled not guilty. so wanting to change her plea implies she now intends to plead guilty. then abc news was first to report tonight that in conjunction with her guilty plea to a conspiracy charge, maria butina will also agree to cooperate, to cooperate with federal, state, and local authorities in ongoing investigations. cnn soon added the fact, or the report that butina has already started meeting with prosecutors as part of this deal. if this abc and cnn reporting is correct, that means that on wednesday afternoon, the judge will be hearing maria butina's guilty plea, and we presumably will have some public-facing indication of the kind of cooperation deal she is making in conjunction with that plea. i should tell you, "the daily beast" has just matched that reporting from abc news and cnn, and in their report, they're adding some sort of incredible details that they say are quotes from the plea agreement. and again, nbc news has not confirmed this reporting, but here is two examples of what "the dail

maria butina had previously plead not guilty. so wanting to change her plea implies she now intends to plead guilty. then abc news was first to report tonight that in conjunction with her guilty plea to a conspiracy charge, maria butina will also agree to cooperate, to cooperate with federal, state and local authorities in ongoing investigations. cnn soon added the fact or the report that butina has already started meeting with prosecutors as part of this deal. if this abc and cnn reporting is correct, that means that on wednesday afternoon, the judge will be hearing maria butina's guilty plea, and we presumably will have some public-facing indication of the kind of cooperation deal she is making in conjunction with that plea. i should tell you the daily beast has just matched that reporting from abc news and cnn, and in their report, they're adding some sort of incredible details that they say are quotes from the plea agreement. and again, nbc news has not confirmed this reporting, but here is two examples of what the daily beas

maria butina, yes. the judge, do you understand it? butina, yes. have you gone over it with your lawyers? yes. have you had enough time to discuss it with your lawyers? yes. is that what you agreed to? the defendant: yes. do you have any confusion or questions about this agreement that you would like to ask me or that you would like to ask your lawyers about? the defendant: no. the judge: are you entering this plea voluntarily and of your own free will because you are guilty? the defendant: yes. the judge: is there anything you do not understand about this plea in this case? no. are you now ready to say whether you want to plead guilty or go to trial on the charges in this case? the defendant, yes. the judge, what do you want to do? the defendant, guilty. that's what she said. she just shouted out guilty. the judge. finally, are you pleading guilty because you are guilty? defendant: yes. the judge: you may have a seat, ms. butina. i am satisfied that ms. butina is fully competent of making a z decision today. the plea knowing and voluntary, she is

maria butina was arrested in july and has been in jail since. in normal cases, she would be sent back to her home country, in this case it would be russia and that would be awkward now she is cooperating. back to you. >> thank you. >>> the president has three weeks to find a new chief of staff. there is no clear frontrunner. a source tells cnn he is quote super pissed how the effort is going. his initial pick nick ayers has ultimately said no to the job. the list of candidates looks like this. it keeps fluctuating. romans. >> a source telling cnn that the president questioned one on the list. david bossie was working with the house during the clinton investigation. bossie was told to go as partisan as possible to survive. and one another candidate? mark meadows. chairman of the freedom caucus and has expertise on how house oversight works. he said he hasn't spoken to the president about the job. >> it sounds if you were offered the job, you would say yes? >> well, you know, listen, there's a lot where you don't answer a question before it is ask

quote, any decision she, maria butina, makes toward freedom, we will support. she is a political prisoner, so she has to get out of there any possible way. and wolf, this is very much in line with some of the things we have been hearing, specifically out of the russian foreign ministry, saying these charges against maria butina, from their perspective, are very much trumped up. they say she's innocent, and now apparently, if we read that quote from maria, also trying to imply that possibly maria butina was pressured into making this plea agreement, wolf. >> all right. fred pleitgen in moscow for us with russian reaction. thank you very much. let's get some more on all of these developments, democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut, a member of the senate judiciary committee. thank you very much for coming in. >> thank you, wolf. >> so have you ever seen an alleged russian spy here in the united states accept a guilty plea agreement and then cooperate with u.s. authorities? >> there may have been some. we may not know about them. but certainly it wou

maria butina was arrested in july and has been in jail since. in normal cases, she would be sent back to her home country, but since that is russia, she is now cooperating. >> thank you. >>> the president has three weeks to find a new chief of staff. a source tells cnn he is quote super pissed how the effort is going. nick ayers said no to the job. the list of candidates looks like this. it keeps fluctuating. >> a source telling cnn that david bossie was working with the house during the clinton investigation. and one another candidate? mark meadows. he has expertise in how house oversight works. he said he hasn't spoken to the president about the job. >> it sounds if you were offered the job, you would say yes? >> well, you know, listen, there's a lot where you don't answer a question before it is asked. because it is an honor, i'm inclined to have a discussion with the president. >> here is cnn's kaitlan collins with more from the white house. >> reporter: dave and christine, president trump is very much scrambling to replace john kelly as chi

an accused-kremlin operative, maria butina, is cooperating with the feds. new questions are being raised at the same time about her connections to russian intelligence agencies. we could find out how much she really knows when she is in the federal courtroom tomorrow. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the siutation room". ♪ >>> this is "cnn breaking news." >>> we're following breaking news on former trump fixer, michael cohen, ordered to serve three years in prison for multiple crimes including crimes he says he committed on behalf of the president of the united states. cohen telling the court he felt the need to coverup for mr. trump's, quote, dirty deeds. cohen says he will continue to cooperate with prosecutors as the russia probe moves closer and closer to the president, his business and his family. also tonight, we are told mr. trump is seething, railing against cohen in private conversations and calling him a liar. >>> i'll get reaction from democratic senator bob menendez, and

but, you never know. >>> some observers have speculated that maria butina might, possibly, have herrer case resolved as part of a spy swap of some kind with the russian government. and the kremlin has taken a keen interest in the case. they have done a lot of publicity around it and advocacy around it. they have been very, very active, both publically advocating and advocating with the u.s. government on her behalf. i don't know what they are offering on her behalf, i don't know if the u.s. government is in the market for any sort of spy swap with the russians at the moment. but it not impossible to imagine that her case may be resolved with something dramatic like that. >>> so, we have been waiting to find out. basically any day now, what is going to happen to this accused russian foreign agent now that federal prosecutors say they are heading toward a resolution of the case. while we have been waiting for that to happen, today, the daily beast has reported that another person in her case, an american who is named in her case, has been warned himself by prosecutors that he might get c

we know maria butina will be in there, expected to plead guilty. it will be interesting to see what exactly prosecutors reveal and what butina's defense team will say. after all, this entire time, they said she was innocent, that she was here as an american student. there was no other pretense about it. so we'll see what they reveal inside the courtroom in just a few minutes. jim and poppy. >> thank you, jessica. we will indeed keep us posted. >> ahead, lawmakers finally coming together on capitol hill. right now, a bipartisan push in the senate to stand up to the saudi crown prince. >> meantime in the house, some members are uniting to try to avert a government shutdown. we'll talk to two of them. maria ramirez? hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. from capital one.nd i switched to the spark cash card mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! i e

some observers have speculated that maria butina might, possibly, have her case resolved as part of a spy swap of some kind with the russian government. and the kremlin has taken a keen interest in the case. they have done a lot of publicity around it and advocacy around it. they have been very, very active, both publically advocating and advocating with the u.s. government on her behalf. i don't know what they are offering on her behalf. i don't know if the u.s. government is in the market for any sort of spy swap with the russians at the moment, but it not impossible to imagine that her case may be resolved with something dramatic like that. so, we have been waiting to find out. basically any day now, what is going to happen to this accused russian foreign agent now that federal prosecutors say they are heading toward a resolution of the case. while we have been waiting for that to happen, today, "the daily beast" has reported that another person in her case, an american who is named in her case, has been warned himself by prosecutors that he might get charged in this case, too. he

. >>> alleged foreign agent maria butina in court to plead guilty, but to what? we have a team out this morning. first our new msnbc reporting, donald trump telling those close to him that he is alarmed by the possibility of impeachment as the seriousness of what's been going down starts to sink in. an ally of the president is telling nbc news, quote, the entire question of whether he committed an impeachable offense hinges on david pecker and alan weisenberg, both cooperating witnesses. who are those guys? david pecker publishes the nation nationalenquirer. they have admitted to buying the silence of women. alan weisselberg, another person believed to be involved in those hush money payments. he has been given immunity by prosecutors. one day after his former personal fixer was sentenced to three years in prison, the president is on a twitter tirade about michael cohen and that money. hans nichols is at the white house for us. it's the first time we've seen the president respond to the sentencing of michael cohen. >> he has broken his silence. his old argument w

but tonight, maria butina has agreed to cooperate with the justice department. in a draft agreement, obtained by abc news, the russian gun rictivist pleads guilty to conspiracy, admitting she "sought to establish unofficial lines of comnication with americans having power and influence over u.s. politics for the benefit of the russian federation." prosecutors say she did it with the help of an american, republican operative paul eriksson, with whom she had a romantic relationship. they've even recorded this video together. ♪ tale as old as time >> reporter: butina says erickson helped her cozy up to conservative leaders and top nra officials. she acknowledges that in 2015, she told a russian official she had "laid the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication with the next u.s. administration." she'd met prominent republicans politicians -- wisconsin governor scott walker, donald trump jr. she even got a chance to ask his father a question about russia. >> do you want to continue the politics of sanctions? >> i know putin, and i'll tell you what, w

and her boyfriend, erickson, performing a disney love song. ♪ there is always time >> maria butina's father talked to some russian media and insists his daughter did nothing wrong, but said she might admit in court she should have registered as a foreign agent. as for paul erickson, he continues to visit her in jail. wolf, if she does plead guilty, she's likely to be sent back to russia. >> we'll see what happens. obviously, very significant development. thanks very much, sara, for that. >>> coming up, pruresident trum tweets about hush money payments. are they impeachable offenses? >>> and the growing list of those now known to have contacts with russians. how many are there? we're about to move. karate helps... relieve some of the house-buying... stress. at least you don't have to worry about homeowners insurance. call geico. geico... helps with... homeowners insurance? been doing it for years. i'm calling geico right now. good idea! get to know geico. and see how easy homeowners and renters insurance can be. you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for

of torturing accused spy maria butina. what they told cnn one day before she is expected to cut a deal. we'll be right back. you always pay your insurance on time. tap one little bumper and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ now after a secret vote by her own party, british prime minister theresa may will learn her fate. will she stay or go? the world will learn what will come of brexit. back in june of '16 there was the stunning vote where brits voted to leave the european union. ever since then it's been talks and disputes and finger pointing and threats. but just when the u.k. and eu are finally close to reaching an agreement on a split, theresa may's own party moves to show her the doo

maria butina in my mind is not a formal illegal. she probably doesn't work directly for the russian intelligence services, but she's rather a co-optee. i think that's why you're seeing the legal path she's going down right now as opposed to a spy swap like we saw back in 2000 with the illegals at that time. >> you're saying if she was actually an intelligence officer or directly working for one of the intelligence services in russia, that it would more likely there would be some sort of swap? >> it would have gone very differently from a legal perspective. i don't think she would have been in jail for as long and the russians would have been more aggressive about cutting some sort of diplomatic or some sort of spy deal. >> tom, of all the trump associates who had contact with russians during the campaign, right now it's 16 by cnn's count, it's easy to get mired in the details of this. but that's just not normal, is it? >> it is not normal, and that's what we've heard from people involved with presidential campaigns going back to rea

maria butina in my mind is not a formal illegal. she probably doesn't work directly for the russian intelligence services, but she's rather a co-optee. i think that's why you're seeing the legal path she's going down right now as opposed to a spy swap like we saw back in 2000 with the illegals at that time. >> you're saying if she was actually an intelligence officer or directly working for one of the intelligence services in russia, that it would more likely there would be some sort of swap? >> it would have gone very differently from a legal perspective. i don't think she would have been in jail for as long and the russians would have been more aggressive about cutting some sort of diplomatic or some sort of spy deal. >> tom, of all the trump associates who did have contact with russians during the campaign, right now it's 16 by cnn's count, it's easy to get mired in the details of this. but that's just not normal, is it? >> it is not normal, and that's what we've heard from people involved with presidential campaigns going back t

gloria, what do prosecutors hope to learn from maria butina? >> i think according to sara murray's great reporting, what they want to know is how she conspired with russians to give them information about how organizations like the nra operate and how you can infiltrate. i mean she is not like a big spy. she is kind of a tool, a littler spy, spy-light, as you call it, susan. she is somebody they are charging, according to the plea agreement, who agreed and conspired with a russian government official and at least one other person to -- to spy about -- on, for example, the nra and to figure out how to infiltrate certain organizations that are very important to american elections. >> jeffrey, how do you see all of this? >> well, you know, the question is who told her to go infiltrate the american conservative movement, what information did she get, and who did she contact there and was there any connection to the trump campaign. it is worth pointing out that this case is being prosecuted by the department of justice, not the mueller office. so on

her name is maria butina and she pleaded guilty to conspiracy. she admitted to working with an american on behalf of moscow to open lines of communication with influential americans and political organizations. now, there is no indication that butina influenced donald trump or his campaign and she was charged by the u.s. attorney in washington, not special counsel robert mueller. but what about organizations like the nra, which she is accused of infiltrating? how much legal trouble are they facing and her -- perhaps the connection with her on again/off again boyfriend. with me now is michael isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent for yahoo news who wrote about maria butina and danny cevallos, msnbc legal analyst who is -- there was a time this was the biggest story of the day. that was some six hours and 25 news cycles ago. but michael why did she plead guilty? is this a russian spy? is this a bad lobbyist? what is she? >> look, she didn't plead guilty to espionage and they didn't charge her with that but they've h had her in custody for

and kyra, vladimir putin was asked today if he knows who maria butina is. and the other question tonight, where does she go after a plea deal with u.s. prosecutors? can she even go home to russia after helping prosecutors here? >> reporter: well, david, she will likely have no choice and will ultimately be deported. and vladimir putin saying today that maria butina has never been on his radar, nor any of his key intelligence advisers, while russia has pushed hard to bring her home. david? >> all right, kyra phillips in wash, greaave you. >>> a california judge has ordered stormy daniels to pay president trump $293,000 after her defamation case against him was dismissed. last month, the judge dismissed her claim that one of the president's tweets defamed her. tonight, ordering her to pay the president's legal fees. >>> and a jury in charlottesville, virginia, tonight, is now recommending life behind bars for james fields, the man who drove his car into counter protesters at a white nationalist rally last year, killing a young woman, heather heyer. on friday,

election, but maria butina is the first one who is actually in u.s. custody and who is cooperating with american prosecutors. so it's quite possible she could shed more light on what the russians are up to, especially because she was quite close to aleksandr torshin, who was the deputy governor of the russian central bank and somebody who was close to putin and was somebody who was focused on infiltrating the nra and, through the nra, republican politics. >> i want to play this for you. this is a clip of butina asking then-candidate donald trump a question. it was at a campaign event in 2015. here it is. >> i'm visiting from russia. >> ah, putin. good friend of obama, putin. he liked obama a lot. go ahead. >> if you would be elected as president, what will be your foreign politics especially in the relationships with my country, and do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging both economy, or you have any other ideas? >> okay. obama gets along with nobody. the whole world hates us. i know putin, and i'll tell you what. we get a

election, but maria butina is the first one who is actually in u.s. custody and who is cooperating with american prosecutors. so it's quite possible she could shed more light on what the russians are up to, especially because she was quite close to aleksandr torshin, who was the deputy governor of the russian central bank and somebody who was close to putin and was somebody who was focused on infiltrating the nra and through the nra, republican politics. >> i want to play this for you. this is a clip of butina asking then-candidate donald trump a question. it was at a campaign event in 2015. here it is. >> i'm visiting from russia. >> ah, putin. good friend of obama, putin. he liked obama a lot. go ahead. >> if you would be elected as president, what will be your foreign politics especially in the relationships with my country, and do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging both economy, or you have any other ideas? >> okay. obama gets along with nobody. the whole world hates us. i know putin, and i'll tell you what. we get al

an accused-kremlin operative, maria butina, is cooperating with the feds. new questions are being raised at the same time about her connections to russian intelligence agencies. we could find out how much she really knows when she is in the federal courtroom

to join maria butina's defense team as, quote, advisory counsel. so, i don't know what that means. she's already got lawyers defending her in this case. i don't know why, but the judge just gave her an extra defense lawyer to help out her existing team of lawyers. i don't know what that means. and we don't know exactly what's happening with the maria butina case, but it does seem like it's coming to an end. prosecutors and her defense team had indicated to the court a few weeks ago they might be coming to some sort of resolution. today's proceedings make it seem like that is starting to happen, and this comes, of course, at a time when the daily beast has just reported that adjacent to the maria butina case, her american, maybe, boyfriend republican activist eriksson, has received a target letter from federal prosecutors that prosecutors are also considering charging him with being an agent of a foreign power. that was reported in the daily beast yesterday. so, all of these things seem to be sort of wrapping, right, or coming to important benchmark

for maria butina, she just pled guilty. so she's not going on trial. there's not going to be a jury that has to be selected to rule on her guilt or innocence. she pled guilty. so why would you still need the gag order, what's the justification for it? that's what we just got from the prosecutors in her case tonight, and this is interesting. first of all, they say there's a chance that maria butina's plea deal might fall apart, which they would put her on trial. quote, although the government has no reason to expect the defendant will breach the plea agreement, if the event she does she will be subject to prosecution from other crimes. there is a chance however small that the government could proceed to trial on the indictment or some portion thereof. given that possibility, they continue. quote, while the government again has no reason to believe the defendant will attempt to withdraw her plea prior to sentencing -- >> so they're raising these possibilities. maybe her plea agreement is going to fall apart, and there will be a trial. but then here's the

. >>> we're following breaking news in the case of accused russian spy maria butina. i want to get to sara murray for details. this is -- i don't know that i've heard of this before. what is going on? >> so this is a filing that we clearly were not supposed to see. it seems like something the prosecutors are trying to file under seal, because it disappeared pretty quickly after it was blasted through the court system. it's prosecutors saying we want to move maria butina around, we want her to be available for interviews with attorneys in virginia and in washington, d.c., between december and into january. and says she might be requested to appear before a grand jury in d.c. into those dates. so it's short of when and where they want her to cooperate into an ongoing federal investigation. and, of course, we know that one of the people that they're looking into in connection to maria butina is her boyfriend, paul erickson, a south dakota republican political operative, who has visited her a number of times in jail, and who she is cooperating against. but, again, this is

>>> plus, the russia connection, russian agent maria butina, her guilty plea giving us new clues about the kremlin's efforts to influence american politics. >>> and obamacare deadline, with one day left to sign up for obamacare, why this year could be the worst enrollment season in the program's history. in baltimore, a community sees new life rise from ruin. in southern california, a small family business becomes a beacon of hope. in seattle, people with disabilities create success and shatter barriers. day in, day out, people prove that when we work as one, we have the power to create better futures for us all. but he has plans today. so he took aleve this morning. hey dad. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now.

maria butina said she conspired to act as an illegal foreign agent. she is cooperating and sharing information on who directed her to infiltrate one of the most important organizations in republican politics, the national rifle association. jessica schneider joins us from outside the white house in washington, d.c. what are we hearing? >> reporter: a guilty plea and a remarkable portrayal about how maria butina tried to infiltrate organizations at the behest of russian officials. they laid it all out saying this kicked off in 2015 when maria butina drafted a proposal and in that proposal she detailed how she would be a conduit between the russian government and important u.s. political figures. they say at one point, alexander tortian, a bank official gave her $125,000 to attend important political conferences including those led by the national rifle association and said how she worked with a u.s. citizen to organize a friendship dinner where important figures would be there and they would discuss russian-american policy and said as recently as 2017,

>>> plus russian maria butina who came face-to-face with president trump. today, guilty, admitting to being in the illegal agent working at the direction of the russian government. >>> and first lady melania trump's poll numbers take a dive. why? boom. enjoy your prime rib! anyone ever call you, "meat santa"? no, that's... weird. happy holidays. enjoy. next customer? enjoy. opportunity is everywhere. like here. where you can explore the world knowing you can always find your way home. ♪ for a limited time, $50 for them $10 for you. applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. [[clap, clap]] ♪ hey, jen, which tie says, "trustworthy but also fun"? gold down, oil up. oil down, gold up. this is too busy. we need to make sure people can actually use this stuff. which one says, "hours of free live streaming coverage without cable or subscription fees"? aluminum, aluminum? you ready, zack? oh, we're ready. welcome to the show. let's make finance make sense. ♪ with retirement planning and advice for what you need today and tomorrow. because when yo

maria butina, the charges aren't brought by robert mueller. she could be a witness like the others that could prove useful to robert mueller. that's because she came over with a similar goal to some of the people robert mueller has been investigating. she wanted to be able to unofficially infiltrate the republican party leading up to the 2016 election and she used her position as a gun rights activist to get inside the nra and try to set up some of those channels of communication. they also mentioned the church. she used a national prayer breakfast to begin what she called back channels of communication. if that sounds similar, one of the things rasht mueller is looking into, whether or not there were back channels between in that case the trump campaign and russian officials. so maria butina falls outside the koconcentrated trump campai. her boyfriend worked with her. he is a republican operative and she was under the direction of that man alexander torsion who you laid out who is part of the russian central bank and a russian official himsel

maria butina pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy today for illegally acting as a foreign agent and agreed to cooperate with the office of the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia. even as butina hobnobbed in prominent conservative and gun rights circles, prosecutors say she was actually working with central banker alexander torshin to establish back channels to powerful americans. there's still, however, a lot we don't know about butina's case from the roles of certain americans who helped her and particularly her relationship with the national rifle association. here to answer some of those unresolved questions, mark fullman and ben rhodes, former national security advisor and miscellaneous nbc political contributor. mark, this was someone who was quite successful from just out of nowhere essentially in weaving herself into the center of a lot of conservative politics. >> yeah. well, i think first today's plea deal is just stunning confirmation of what we at mother jones and many other news outlets have been reporting for a long time about the way that they so successful

butina, a fan of the film. ♪ tale as old as time >> is maria butina a russian agent? >> no. she's not. she's a student. she's a russian national. she's a lover of america and of russia, but she is not a russian agent by any means. >> reporter: but prosecutors told a different story. claiming she was leveraging her relationship for access to the republican elite, even coming face-to-face with the future president. >> do you want to continue the politics of sanctions? >> i believe i would get along very nicely with putin, okay. >> reporter: all allegedly done at the behest of a russian banker with close ties to the kremlin. according to the proposed plea deal, butina would promise her full cooperation with forriti . erickson hasn't been charged with a crime and butina is due in court on wednesday, ultimately, it's likely she will be deported back to her mother russia. robin. >> all right, kyra, thank you. >>> now to the arrest of that ohio woman who prosecutors say was planning mass murder. they say she celebrated killers and online postings even visit visiting columbine high

was maria butina just freelancing on behalf of the deputy bank chief aleksandr torshin? but this shows they were trying to infiltrate kind of at all angles. so they had the hacking operation. they had the disinformation c campaign, and at the same time it appears they had these political operatives, which is really what maria butina. he wasn't a spy. she certainly wasn't a trained spy as far as we know. there were no gru connections that were revealed in court yesterday. you know, trying to kind of hob knob with republicans and policymakers in washington, d.c. i think the question now that mueller will have for her because it's likely that mueller is going to interview her at some point as part of his investigation, is when you went to that las vegas rally where donald trump was speaking and when you asked him about sanctions, was that just a coincidence, or was that planned in some respect? was it his first, you know, opportunity to discuss the sanctions issue in public, and was that staged, and i think that that's going to be a really important kquestion for them to an

maria butina first came to the united states back in 2015. she is a gun rights activist from siberia. and she started to develop her connections with the national rifle association here. she also defended and then, paul erickson, who is a republican operative, pretty well connected and they started a relationship together. and what the prosecutors say is that, after that, maria butina started to develop a plan to make connections with influential people in american politics in order to further rush hour's national interest. she used to pull erickson‘s help to do that and she made a number of meetings and she made a number of meetings and arrangements to do just that. —— russia. she actually asked a question of president trump at a press c0 nfe re nce question of president trump at a press conference back in 2015, asking him whether or not he would lift sanctions against russia if he became president. now, up until now, she has pleaded not guilty to the charges she has faced, which is working as a foreign agent and conspiracy charges, bu

what do we know about maria butina's story? maria butina came to the us backin story? maria butina came to the us back in 2015 and she started developing links at that stage with the national rifle association. she isa gun the national rifle association. she is a gun rights advocate in russia. prosecutors say she was doing that in order to peddle influence not just with the nra but with other political figures in the just with the nra but with other politicalfigures in the republican party. she befriended a republican campaigner, paul erickson, involved in the early 1990s and pat buchanan's in the early 1990s and pat bucha nan's run for in the early 1990s and pat buchanan's run for president and they developed a relationship. prosecutors said he helped her get in contact with people. there was an occasion in 2015 when she asked a question at a press conference whether or not donald trump would consider lifting sanctions against russia if he was to become president. eventually prosecutors decided to charge her and she did this injuly decided to charge her and she did th

maria butina the russian spy. it's rare for a russian spy to turn. i don't know how to read the intrigue here. do you believe the investigation she's cooperating with against her boyfriend is about just her own efforts? or do you think that there's a chance this russian invasion dynamic could have some type of next sus with what's going on in the larger probe? >> it seems like it would have the an ex. in what way it wind up feeding into the mueller investigation or a house proceeding i think is not known. what it does demonstrate however is the wide range of russian efforts to influence the out come of the election and influence public policy. what's striking about this episode taken together with the others is no matter how much evidence mounts about the contacts the russians were having with the campaign and policy makers. the cyber intervention they made into the campaign. the president consistently told the public and tweet after tweet and public statement, nothing like that that he was concerned with really happened. in fact he was inclined to b

and the russian foreign ministry now says butina only pleaded guilty to survive, but in court maria butina said her mind was absolutely clear despite russian government claims that said she was tortured and while her lawyer said the solitary confinement was having negative effects on her psychologically, they say her mental state has been improved since she's been allowed to leave her cell at night for activities like church and meeting with a russian orthodox minister. but she will remain in that jail cell until her sentencing which is scheduled for february 12th, and at that point she does face up to five years in police-in and could be deported after her sentence. >> very dramatic stuff indeed. thank you very much, jessica, for that report. there's more breaking news that we're following. bomb threats e-mailed to dozens of institutions and businesses across the united states and canada. let's got to our crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz. both the fbi and atf, i understand, are now helping in this investigation. >> reporter: yeah, certainly the fbi having a big role here becaus

we've been identifying russian spies, we've arrested butina. >> maria butina is still in jail in the u.s. and cooperating with federal prosecutors. u.s. officials have suggested in court papers that butina was specifically tasked by her russian handlers with infiltrating conservative political groups in america, such as the nra. putin recently complained publicly about her case, denying any knowledge of butina. >> translator: no one knows anything about her at all. the only thing anyone knows, she worked at the federation council for one of the deputies. that's it. >> reporter: as for paul whelan, bob bare says he thinks it's unlikely he works for the u.s. governme government, we says doesn't usually send spies to moscow. he says he could have simply been working for a private company and was conveniently rounded up. he says it's possible the russians will hold whelan until butina's case is resolved and she returns to russia. but he says putin is under a great deal of pressure inside russia, and may want more for the american than just maria butina. >> a lot of the oligarchs are bein

the maria butina case, reporting in case there's any confusion she's agreed to fully cooperate, that maria butina apparently will become the first russian national who apparently will be plead guilty in the russia scandal followed by the revelation she apparently will be plead guilty in conjunction with a plea agreement that will involve fully cooperating with prosecutors from this point forward. that's a remarkable turn. anytime somebody flips in this case after initially pleading not guilty, that's a big deal when you are an accused russian agent agreeing to flip and cooperate with the fbi and federal prosecutors, that's a whole different big deal. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. and thank you for just reminding us that the russia investigation is about russia. >> yeah. >> something it's easy to lose sight of since there's so many other angles going in this including obstruction of justice by the president after the fact of the campaign. but this full cooperation from someone on the russian side of this case, this is an extraordinary turn. >> i mean, the thing that

maria butina is going to plead guilty to conspiring to violate the law. she's not being charged as a spy. she was a russian agent of influence. she came here to essentially infiltrate republican party circles and the national rifle association to try to burnish russia's image, to build ties between republicans and the russian government and to help influence the trump administration, and so there's a couple of interesting -- this is not a robert mueller case. this preceded the mueller investigation, but there may be some cross pollination here. there may be some things of interest to robert mueller. first of all, butina asked donald trump a question during the campaign that led him to say that he wanted to improve relations with putin and potentially lift sanctions on russia. and then secondly, butina's russian handler pitched the trump campaign on a meeting between putin and trump, and jared kushner rebuffed tortin, but he ended up at an nra dinner next next. >> hans nichols let me bring you in here first. president trump late reporting to the white hous

for maria butina, she just pled guilty. there's not going to be a jury that has to be selected to rule on her guilt or innocence. she pled guilty. so why would you still need the gag order, what's the justification for it? that's what we just got from the prosecutors in her case tonight, and this is interesting. first of all, they say there's a chance that maria butina's plea deal might fall apart, which they would put her on trial. >> so they're raising these possibilities. maybe her plea gramt agreement going to fall apart, and there will be a trial. but here's the heads up from the federal prosecutors, who are handing the butina case to say hey, there's something else going on here. and, again, her case is being handled by the u.s. attorney in d.c., specifically by the national security division in that office. here's their closing argument to the judge. >> they note that they have added the emphasis them selves. >> so respectfully submitted, leave the gag order in place, judge, because here comes some more defendants. b

many maria butina, the russian spy. it's rare for a russian spy to turn. i don't know how to read the sbreg here. do you believe the information she's now cooperating with to help herself against her boyfriend is about just her own efforts or do you think there's a chance this russian invasion doing could have some type of nexus with what's going on in the larger probe? >> it seems like it would have that nexus. i think what this case demonstrates is the different way -- >> but mueller isn't doing the investigating. >> that is correct and what way it winds up feeding into the mueller investigation or a house proceeding is still not known. what it does demonstrate, however, is the wide range of russian efforts to influece the outcome of the election and public policy and what is striking about this episode taken together with the others is no matter how much evidence mounts about the contacts russians were having with the campaign, with policy makers, the unprecedented cyber intervention that they made into the campaign, the president has consistently told

the case of maria butina, for example. she is charged with being a secret agent of the russian government, operating in this country to influence the 2016 election and the republican party, in part through her involvement in the nra. today the judge in the butina case convened a phone conference with prosecutors and with butina's defense team. almost all of it was conducted under seal at the request of butina's lawyers, but before they locked the doors and kicked the public and the reporters out, we did learn a few more details that would seem to indicate that the butina case is heading towards some sort of resolution fairly soon, whether it's a plea deal or some other kind of ending, we don't know. but today maria butina's lawyers asked the judge to basically cancel the next public hearing that was scheduled for her case. her lawyers also said that they would -- they will likely abandon an earlier effort they had been pursuing to subpoena documents and records from the university she'd been attending as part of her defens

, this is potentially really significant because maria butina, she pinpoints what is a broader russian effort to interfere in our politics. not just the 2016 election, but our broader politics. and what were the russians trying to do? they were trying to infill ratr the republican party, infiltrate the far right. they way they figure it out, the way they identified how best to do that was by infiltrating the nra. and this is an extremely important case and i think one we're going to hear a lot about in the days, weeks, months going forward, and as a lot of implications on what the nra actually did during the 2016 election with all their spending that was at record high and some of the money that has allegedly been received from russia that contributed to nra's efforts during the election period. >> we saw in this extraordinary letter by 44 former senators to the united states senate tonight that they seem to believe that the mueller investigation is nearing its conclusion, which is why they wrote that letter. as you put these pieces together, do you have a sense of where, a guess, i wo

. >> reporter: maria butina admitted today that when she was seeking to influence american politics, urging better relations between the u.s. and russia, she was secretly acting at the direction of a russian official, aleksandr torshin, a close ally of vladimir putin. she wasn't a spy, prosecutors say. her crime, acting as an agent of russia without notifying the u.s. she admitted that her strategy was start with the nra. >> i am board member of the right to bear arms. this is an all-russian public organization. we promote gun rights. >> reporter: and used that as a springboard to meet influential republicans. vladimir putin said this week that he asked the heads of all his intelligence services who she was and no one knew. a far cry from the russian foreign ministry's tweets last summer, calling her a political prisoner and urging the u.s. to free her. prosecutors are hoping that with this plea deal, maria butina can shed more light on what else russia was up to to influence american politics. lester? >> pete williams tonight. thank you, pete. >>> caught on camera, the terrifying mo

"the new york times" says maria butina, an accused russian spy who cultivated relationships with the nra and powerful gop conservatives, has agreed to plead guilty to conspireing to act as a foreign agent. the plea deal includes cooperating with federal prosecutors. we will have more on this story just ahead in our broadcast. >>> but we begin with the president and the white house trying to deal with this new reality after the revelations made in friday's court filings from robert mueller and from the southern district of new york. part of doj. federal prosecutors in the michael cohen case have implicated trump in a scheme to buy the silence of two women, stormy daniels and karen mcdougal, during the 2016 campaign. that's a violation of campaign finance laws because it would be illegal spending to potentially affect the outcome of an election. this morning, trump posted his defense in messages that included a huge misspelling that's been talked about all day. it began by quoting fox news. "democrats can't find a smocking gun. tieing the trump campaign to russia after james comey's te

maria butina is expected to change her plea to guilty tomorrow. meantime, some republican senators are shrug off the fact that prosecutors implicated president trump in two federal crimes for allegedly directing michael cohen to make hush money payments to women he had affairs with before the 2016 election. senators are calling it a question of michael cohen's credibility. john kennedy said jesus loves him, but everybody else thinks he's an idiot. utah senator orrin hatch is attempting to downplay the criminal allegations. you may remember back in 1999 during bill clinton's trial, senator hatch said committing crimes should disqualify someone for office. now he said this about the allegations i just mentioned. >> i don't care. he is doing a good job as president. i don't think he was involved in crimes, but even then, you can make anything a crime under the current laws if you want to. you can do a lot of things. >> gloria borger with me. what's your reaction to this. they remember they were not successful in impeaching bill clinton. >> where you

what maria butina's case tells us about the widespread efforts to infiltrate u.s. politics. and the first lady's poll numbers are taking a huge hit according to this new cnn poll. why is that? let's discuss. (music throughout) but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. your insurance rates skyrocket you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ >>> conspiracy against the united states. that is the charge that alleged russian spy maria butina pleaded guilty to today in a federal court. she's accused of trying to infiltrate political circles back in 2015 saying she acted under the direction of a retired russian

today, the judge made her decision and lifted the gag order in the maria butina case. which means a couple of things. it means we're probably going to hear more public information from people associated with this case, including presumably the lawyers. but it also raises interesting questions about whether there are potential other defendants related to her case that aren't her or not. watch this case. >> it is official. tonight at midnight, parts of the federal government shut down, after leaders could not agree, we are in the third government shutdown this year. it affects nine departments, including those who oversee homeland security, law enforcement and transportation and hundreds of thousands of federal employees. if it dragos for days or weeks the tone in washington for most of friday had been tense to say the