Russian Spy's Boyfriend Targeted

On Monday, Maria Butina, the Kremlin's mole inside conservative groups including the National Rifle Rampage Association, indicated that she wanted to shift her plea from "not guilty" to "guilty" on charges that she operated as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin for years. She'd been cultivating contacts within right-wing, Rethuglican affiliated groups to, in the words of the charging document, “establish unofficial lines of communication with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics.”

Now, it's reported that Butina's boyfriend, Rethuglican hack and operative Paul Erickson, set up a "back channel" conduit for the Kremlin, the NRA and what appears to have been Trump's campaign. From an e-mail he wrote in October 2016 which is in the possession of the FBI, Erickson said:

“I’ve been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [unnamed political party] leaders through, of all conduits, the [unnamed gun-rights organization].”

The FBI also found a note by Erickson when they executed a search warrant that said,“How to respond to FSB offer of employment?” The FSB is Moscow's intelligence service, the successor to the KGB. Erickson has been notified that he's a target of the FBI's investigation into the Butina matter.

The Kremlin protested mightily when Butina was first arrested in July, and U.S. officials were concerned that she might seek refuge in the Russian embassy and be spirited out of the U.S. Even now, they're protesting her arrest, no doubt fearing that she'll spill more in exchange for a lighter sentence. There's more to the story, and with boyfriend Erickson in the FBI's net, things will get more fascinating.

(photo: A wild-and-crazy cowgirl, comrade.)