ms. butina. i am satisfied that ms. butina is -- excuse me. i'm satisfied that ms. butina is fully competent and capable of making a decision today, that she understands the nature and charges of the plea, that the plea is guilty knowing and voluntarily, that she is acting of her own free will pleading guilty and there is an actual factual basis containing each of the essential elements of the offense for her plea. besides from the large awkward blurt of the word "guilty," that was a by the book, but still absolutely shocking court proceeding today in federal court in washington. i mean, with this, today, marina butina becomes the first russian national convicted for seeking to influence u.s. politics around the time of the election in 2016. she had not -- excuse me, she had previously plead not guilty after she was arrested in july. she was charged with operating as an agent of the russian government in this country. she initially plead not guilty. what is perhaps most remarkable about this u-turn in her case now, though, not that she has change her mind and change

ms. butina. i am satisfied that ms. butina is fully competent of making a z decision today. the plea knowing and voluntary, she is acting of her own free will and there is a factual basis for each of the offense for her plea. and aside from the loud awkward blurt of the word "guilty," that was a by-the-book, but still absolutely shocking court proceeding today in federal court in washington. i mean, with this today, maria butina becomes the first russian national convicted for seeking to influence u.s. politics around the time of the election in 2016. she had not -- excuse me. she had previously pled not guilty after she was arrested in july. she was charged with operating as an agent of the russian government in this country. she initially pled not guilty. what is perhaps most rashlable about her this u-turn in her case, not that she changed her mind, changed her plea from not guilty to guilty, the thing most remarkable about her guilty plea is it is accompanied by an aggressive cooperation agreement she has entered into with prosecutors in exchange for the u.s. attorney in

ms. butina must cooperate with federal, state and local authorities in exchange for what could be a short prison term or possibly a release after having already spent five months in jail. as a felon, she will most likely be deported after her release, as was made clear in court filings laying out the deal that were obtained by "the new york times." back in july 2015, back before we knew any of what we know today about russian involvement, president trump called on her first when she raised her hand at a political event in las vegas. >> i'm visiting from russia. >> ah. >> so my question -- >> putin. good friend of obama, right? >> if you are elected as president, who will be your foreign politics especially in relationships with my country? and do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging of both economy, are you have any other ideas? >> i believe i would get along very nicely with putin. okay? and, i mean, where we have the strength. i don't think you need the sanctions. >> and earlier today, because he was hot today, former fbi assistant director for counterintelli

ms. butina now cooperating and you've got this issue out there of whether or not the russians had put money in through the nra to fund the trump campaign. i mean, that's got to be worrying them. and then on top of it all you've got the democrats coming into congress. and before robert mueller does anything he is going to want all of those statements released from the house intelligence committee. >> right. >> because we know that don jr. was in there. we know that jared kushner was in there. and i think they're going to be looking at those pretty closely before they start bringing indictments. they want to know what all of these people said, and none of this is good news for the white house. >> and they've already nailed michael cohen on a guilty plea of lying to congress. see if there's more in the offing. nick akerman, thank you very much. >>> up next, as the president makes his first trip to visit the troops we discover how he dodged the vietnam war himself, the mystery of trump's bone spurs is solved. that's next. >>> president trump's first ever visit with american troops stationed abr

ms. butina, michael cohen, and on multiple layers and in multiple directions are sort of closing in on president trump, and at a time when his chief of staff is on the way out. he doesn't have a new chief of staff yet identified. so you know, in every direction right now, i think president trump is under pressure. and i do think that the incoming house with democrats taking control of the house, you'll see a likelihood for impeachment, for more investigations, and more areas to pull on. so i do think that we're seeing president trump kind of under pressure in all directions. >> and jennifer, these elements, tomorrow i think seems to be a really important day for michael cohen in his sentencing. i wonder what you think and expect there. also, the simple fact that we now have someone, maria butina, who is an alleged russian spy, who is cooperating with the u.s. government. just that simple fact in and of itself, that seems a very big deal. >> it is a big deal. what i don't know, kate, is the parameters of her cooperation. if she were cooperating in the southern district of new york, i would be 100

ms. butina said, i don't think she is actually an operative of one of the russian intelligence services, the russian's have many ways of extending their tentacles and attempting to exert influence. i think what is interesting about this is the russians singled out conservative right wing groups, notably the nra, and they certainly understand the death grip that the nra has on many of our politicians. so it makes every bit of sense from their standpoint to try to implant her in an organization like this that would have access and gain information as well as exert influence. >> was she being used by the russians unwittingly as someone to try to establish these kind of contacts? >> well, i don't -- it remains to be seen just how witting she was. i suspect she was -- she's witting. >> she is going to plead guilty as part of this guilty plea agreement with federal authorities, the u.s. attorney here in the district of columbia. >> right, which tells me the federal authorities i think have enough evidence against her that, you know, they could use leverage -- exert leverage over her and get he

ms. butina claimed she had a signed agreement with the national rifle association in october of 2013, sheet with members of a gun rights group called the association for the promotion of weapons culture. in a facebook post the apwc wrote that butina told them the right to bear arms was signed with cooperating countries and with the american nra, saying we're probably next in line. there is no right to bear arms in russia. what do you make of the fact that this seems like a multi national scheme to use the idea of gun rights to try and get in to the republican party? >> yeah. it's a pretty pathetic look for the nra and for the republicans that on one hand they're this easily manipulated but also complicit. there are people who will be indicted themselves for failing to register as foreign agents. it's obvious their loyalty is to themselves, their wallets, to russian operatives, and possibly to foreign countries. the other thing significant about this is how far back it goes. if you look at 2013, you have an interesting year for trump, russia, the nra and all these operatives. she was meeti

ms. b butina. >> okay.ant to turn your attention to china, the chinese executive arrested in canada, threatened extradition to the u.s. for violatio violations. president trump said he may intervene in the case if it helps trade relations with china. what are your thoughts? >> it sets a dangerous precedent. we have a treaty with canada where we can make these types of extradition requests. law enforcement officers here and prosecutors here clearly made the request for them to detain her in relation to that prosecution. the president could direct the justice department to back down from that prosecution. i think it would be very, very dangerous. it would be outside any acceptable norm in terms of the kind of getting politics into this criminal investigation. and the reason it would be dangerous is because it frankly would be open season on our executives who travel over to china. >> wouldn't you be nervous if you were a u.s. diplomat right now, some tech company exec going over there? >> as we've seen, the c

ms. ber trard, you were in court yesterday for this guilty plea and you wrote about butina being a part offashioned ground operation if you will, one sentence from your piece, butina is young, just 30 years old but effective. in the short time she spent operating in washington, d.c., she interacted with trump, donald trump junior, and a trump campaign adviser named j.d. gordon. what does that say about the extent and seriousness of russia's attempts to excerpt influence on our political process? >> we don't know whether her attempts and her efforts were coordinated with the broader russian government campaign to interfere in the election. were they separate? was maria butina just freelancing on behalf of the deputy bank chief aleksandr torshin? but this shows they were trying to infiltrate kind of at all angles. so they had the hacking operation. they had the disinformation c campaign, and at the same time it appears they had these political operatives, which is really what maria butina. he wasn't a spy. she certainly wasn't a trained spy as far as we know. there were no gru connections th

ms. banco, i really appreciate you being here. thank you for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> we're seeing multiple reports now that marina butina has not only agreedo a guilty plea, but has agreed to cooperation. are you guys able to be specific at "the daily beast" in terms of what you understand the scope of her cooperation deal to be, what types of prosecutors, and what types of investigations she is agreeing to cooperate in? >> sure. so, my colleague betsy woodruff and i have been following the erickson/butina story for quite a while now. and betsy had a story come out today. but, no, we do not know the full extent of this cooperation agreement. that's a big unknown for us and for everyone else. the question is, who has butina talked to prosecutors about? has she talked to prosecutors about her now longtime boyfriend paul erickson? has she spoken to prosecutors about leaders in the nra? those are all questions we have not answered yet. and so we do not know the full scope of that cooperation agreement. but it is very possible, according to our sourcing, that butina has spoken at length to prosecutors about at least erickson. >> now, you and be