RECAST - US Ready To Delay Butina Sentencing If Defense Needs More Time To Review Evidence - Filing

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th April, 2019) US prosecutors in Russian national Maria Butina's case are prepared to delay her sentencing hearing scheduled for April 26 if defense lawyers need more time to review new evidence, a court document revealed.

"Yet the government provided the defense with timely and adequate notice and, to the extent that the defense believes it needs additional time to respond, the government will not object to the Court providing them with that time," the prosecutors said in the court document on Tuesday.

The evidence in question comes from former FBI agent Robert Anderson, who said in a declaration to the court that Butina's work for the Russian government was of "tremendous intelligence value" and may have caused "significant damage to the United States."

Butina's attorneys requested the court to exclude Anderson's testimony from the case as "unreliable."

Earlier on Tuesday, the defense lawyers said they would be prepared to move forward with the original sentencing date as planned despite not having enough time to study the evidence and will address it "to the best of the defense's ability under the circumstances.

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US prosecutors included the declaration along with their pre-sentencing memo asking the court to sentence Butina to 18 months in prison. Butina, who has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to act as a foreign agent, has requested a sentence of time served.

Butina's lawyers argued in Tuesday's filing at the US District Court for the District of Columbia that it would be a violation of her right to due process under the law if the court allows the declaration to be considered during her sentencing hearing on Friday.

Butina's defense requested that Butina be deported immediately after sentencing. She was arrested in Washington in mid-July last year.