It hasn’t even been a week since America discovered that the largest Republican lobbying group in the nation, the National Rifle Association, was infiltrated over the course of the last few years by at least two Russian operatives, one of them — Maria Butina — now indicted as an “unregistered foreign agent.”
But social media posts by each of them, including Butina and her former boss (and governor of Russia’s Central Bank), are leaving questions in the minds of both investigators and American citizens. Despite denials by both Torshin and Butina that they ever had meaningful contact with Donald Trump or his campaign, messages left by the two on their various social media accounts say something entirely different.
First, Torshin tweeted an enigmatic message on February 13, 2016 that referenced both Butina’s arrival in the United States and Donald Trump in the same post:
Мария Бутина сейчас в США. Пишет мне, что Д.Трамп (член NRA) реально за сотрудничество с Россией. https://t.co/enLxGEeCaX
— А.П. Торшин (@torshin_ru) February 14, 2016
For those who don’t read Cyrillic, the translations are now built into Twitter:
That tweet — still completely accessible if you click it above — essentially makes a liar out of Butina when she says her voyage to America had nothing to do with trying to meet Trump or make inroads with Republican politicians, although we have a much more detailed post at DC Tribune on the lengthy list of GOP power brokers she happily posed for pictures with.
In that article, in fact, you’ll find a video of Butina specifically asking Trump at an event about “damaging” sanctions levied against Russia, which he openly tells her he is amenable to eliminating. The removal of those sanctions has been the singular goal of the Kremlin for the last six years, so it’s hard to imagine that Butina hasn’t been sent by, if not Putin himself, someone under his direct command.
But it’s her post on election night, well before enough results were in to declare a winner, that leaves the most gigantic question the Tribune has found so far.
Again, that post has never been removed from Butina’s Facebook account — it is live right now and you can still click on it yourself. And for those who need a translation, here you go:
How does Maria Butina know hours before literally any news network even thought about calling the election for Trump that he’s won?
That’s an excellent question, and one we here at the Tribune are quite sure Robert Mueller has well in hand.
Featured image via Maria Butina Facebook public photos
