A New York Times exposé on Saturday about covert Russian agent Maria Butina turned up more than just new evidence of the young infiltrator’s incredible influence on Republican politicians in Washington, D.C.
Alongside the details of her activities after arriving in the United States — including making her way into the tight circles of a surprising number of Republican lobbyists, Congress members, and presidential hopefuls, even posing for pictures with many of them — was a before-unseen photo of Butina with one prominent money man who’s found himself in the news in a very bad way involving Russia over the last week: Donald Trump Junior.
The photo, which appears in the Times article skewed wide by more than 50 percent, is a candid shot taken at an NRA convention with Pete Brownell, an arms dealer who at the time of this 2016 photo was yet to be elected president of the NRA (that would come some six months later), Butina in the center — posing then as simply a gun-rights enthusiast eager to spread the gospel of personal gun ownership in her home country, and Donald Trump Jr.
Trump Jr. has denied that any “meeting” ever took place, although the photo here is evidence that, at least like any normal people might, the two spoke at least at some length and made personal introductions indicating who they were.
More importantly, that night seems to be the first contact that Butina made with the actual Trump transition team. Whether Junior himself introduced them or not, and that seems at least likely, Butina met J.D. Gordon at that same convention.
By the time Butina and Gordon, the Trump campaign’s director of national security, finished their meeting that evening, they had exchanged emails and invitations to upcoming social events — including an invitation from Gordon to attend a Styx concert and his birthday party.
That’s not a casual relationship.
Gordon has attempted to downplay his connection to the Russian spy, feigning outrage at the extra scrutiny he has gotten for the cozy friendship. But J.D. Gordon wasn’t just on the Trump campaign. He was the one who recommended — no, pushed for — language in the Trump platform that was kinder to Russia. Among the Trump team members who met with Sergey Kislyak, the ambassador that Jeff Sessions seemed to have so much trouble remembering during his testimony before the Senate, was J.D. Gordon.
And the suspected double agent who was at the center of the very beginning of the FBI investigation into Trump’s involvement with the Russian government, Carter Page, testified that he personally notified Gordon of his trip to Russia in July of 2016.
Does it all start with meeting Donald Trump Junior? Today’s revelation that the President believes his son may have committed a crime in meeting with another Russian operative in Trump Tower that same year seems to indicate Junior was up to more than having his picture taken.
Featured image via screen capture
