Russian citizen Maria Butina will be sentenced on April 26 on charges of conspiring to act as a foreign agent, a US district court judge said on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th March, 2019) Russian citizen Maria Butina will be sentenced on April 26 on charges of conspiring to act as a foreign agent, a US district court judge said on Thursday.During a status hearing at the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Tanya Chutkan set a sentencing date for Butina on April 26 at 10:00 a.m.
Thursday's status hearing began at 10 a.m. and lasted a little over 5 minutes.
Butina's lawyer Robert Driscoll arrived some 30 minutes before the hearing, looking upbeat. As he walked down the corridor toward the courtroom, he greeted members of the press, whose numbers were far fewer than at previous hearings.
Butina appeared in the courtroom wearing a green robe, with her hair in a tight braid. She appeared pale and calm as the hearing got underway.
Driscoll told reporters after the hearing that Butina has met all the requirements of her plea agreement under which she agreed to cooperate with US Federal prosecutors.
He said Butina's lawyers would argue at her sentencing hearing that she deserves a sentence of "time served," meaning that she would not be required to spend any additional time in US prison.
"It is obviously in the judge's hands," he said.
Last month, Driscoll told reporters that Butina would likely be deported right after her sentencing, as per the plea agreement reached with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Office in December.
Butina, who initially denied the charges against her, agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent and to cooperate with the prosecution in exchange for a lighter sentence. According to her plea agreement, she faces a maximum sentence of up to five years.
The plea document signed by the Russian national said that Butina conspired with a "Russian government official," who had served as the deputy governor to the Russian Central Bank since at least 2015, and at least one other person.
Driscoll told Sputnik on Wednesday that Butina "is doing well under the circumstances and looks forward to returning home as soon as possible."
In February, Butina in an interview said she was not a Russian spy as evidenced by the fact she did not conceal her activities, which included promoting gun rights and networking with US Christian nationalists and evangelical groups.
Butina was arrested in mid-July of last year and imprisoned in Washington, DC before being transferred to a detention center in Alexandria, Virginia.
In November, the Russian Embassy in the United States said US authorities kept Butina in a single cell under solitary confinement for 67 days, exceeding the limit recommended by the Nelson Mandela Rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Butina's indictment was unjustified because she was not charged with any mission on behalf of the Russian government.
