While Washington prepares for new cold wars, America’s two major rivals are warming up to one another.
Driving the news: Today alone, the Trump administration laid out an Africa strategy that is tied almost entirely to blocking Chinese and Russian influence, and President Trump used the word “China” 20 times in a relatively brief Fox News interview. U.S. foreign policy is increasingly defined by confrontation and competition with China and with Russia. But what about the third leg of that “great power” triangle?
Maria Butina has pleaded guilty in a D.C. federal court to conspiracy charges alleging that she acted as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of the Russian government. She has agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities and faces up to five years in prison.
The big picture: In a copy of the plea deal obtained earlier this week by ABC News, Butina admitted that she and her American boyfriend, Republican operative Paul Erickson, agreed and conspired with a Russian government official to seek to "establish unofficial lines of communication with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics." One of the ways Butina allegedly developed relationships with American politicians was through her involvement with the NRA. She is the first Russian national convicted for seeking to influence U.S. politics during the 2016 campaign.
President Trump tweeted Thursday morning that his former national security adviser Michael Flynn — for whom special counsel Robert Mueller recommended little to no prison time last week — got "a great deal."
"They gave General Flynn a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way he was treated - the FBI said he didn’t lie and they overrode the FBI. They want to scare everybody into making up stories that are not true by catching them in the smallest of misstatements. Sad! WITCH HUNT!"
Reality check: In his sentencing memo, Mueller explained that Flynn deserved leniency for lying to the FBI because he had offered "substantial assistance" in the special counsel's investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia. Flynn's defense attorneys claimed in their own sentencing memo that, prior to Flynn's initial January 2017 interview with the FBI, agents decided not to warn Flynn of the penalties of lying, and that Flynn was "unguarded" and "saw the FBI agents as allies."
Hackers tied to the Iranian government targeted the personal emails of more than a dozen U.S. Treasury officials and other officials and individuals around the world linked to the Iran nuclear deal, according to an AP report.
Why it matters: The hacking attempts started just as the Trump administration begain to reinstate sanctions against the Iranian regime.
