Sealed US Court Files Suggest Russian Citizen Butina May Testify In Another Case - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th December, 2018) The US Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., filed a sealed court motion asking for a secret transportation of Russian national Maria Butina, detained in the United States, so that she could testify in an unspecified "pending criminal investigation," media reported citing the papers briefly made public.

The US Justice Department had not said in what case Butina might be asked to cooperate, the Daily Beast news outlet reported.

The outlet added, that Butina's boyfriend, activist Paul Erickson, had reportedly been notified by US federal prosecutors that he might be prosecuted for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia just like Butina.

The court documents, made public on Friday, read that the motion should remain sealed because its release "would pose a risk to the defendant's safety and the safety of the community," according to the outlet.

The Daily Beast added that previous court papers, submitted in September, showed US federal agents had transported Butina to the US Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., at least twice.

US authorities arrested Butina in mid-July after which she was detained in Washington, D.C., and subsequently transferred to a prison in Alexandria, Virginia. The Russian national originally pleaded not guilty to charges of acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia in the United States. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said the charges against Butina were groundless and trumped-up and called her ongoing detention unacceptable.

Butina subsequently cooperated with the investigators, pleading guilty in front of a US federal judge to one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent on Thursday.