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Maria Butina Pleads Guilty to Role in a Russian Effort to Influence Conservatives
WASHINGTON — To the conservative Americans she courted, Maria Butina was the right kind of Russian.
- Matthew Rosenberg
- The New York Times
She loved guns and the church and networking with top officials in the National Rifle Association.
She schmoozed with Republican presidential candidates, and became a supporter of Donald J. Trump.
She spent Thanksgiving at a congressman’s country house, took a Trump campaign aide to see the rock band Styx and helped a Rockefeller heir organize “friendship dinners” with influential Washingtonians.
On Thursday, Ms. Butina, 30, pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to act as a…