and she writes torshin, "we made our bet. i am following our game."in answers, "this is the battle for the future. it cannot be lost. patience and cold blood." a week later, butina writes, "only incognito! right now everything has to be quiet and careful." so, incognito, patience, cold blood. what is that? >> butina: let me take you back to 2016, around the election's time. do you remember how at that point american media treated russia? everything was toxic. tell me that there is no racism here against the russians? oh, please. it is. >> stahl: i reminded her that the judge said her crime was a threat to our democratic institutions. >> butina: and it is very sad for me, because it shows how broken the justice system in the united states is. >> stahl: you're saying she's wrong? >> butinecau-- bethe-you cannot charge collecting information with not specifying what information. i have never collected any sensitive or classified information. >> stahl: they're saying you sought to influence our policies. >> butina: i never sought to influence your policie

. >> reporter: her introduction into the nra was facilitated by this man, aleksandr torshin, a russianicial who she had admitted in court papers directed her activities in the u.s. butina met him, she says, when he attended one of her gun rights rallies in moscow. we obtained thousands of private twitter messages they sent each other over 2 1/2 years. was he close to putin? >> i don't think so. >> so you wrote him a message and you said "you are an influential member of putin's team." your words. >> it doesn't suggest he is close to putin in any way. >> was he an influential member of putin's team? >> i don't know. >> well you wrote that. you know, in reading through your messages, it reads as if he's your intelligence case officer. >> look, this is -- i think it's an american very old saying that suggests that wolfs have teeth, but not all animals with teeth are wolves. you cannot judge a person based on appearance. >>> a slow motion drama is unfolding at one of north america's most famous tourist sites. it's happening at niagara falls upriver on the canadian horseshoe side of the fal