Page:Butina mariia - affidavit - july 2018 0 0.pdf/11

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of the 2017 Prayer Breakfast for meeting with her and the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL in Moscow. In this email, BUTINA noted that the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL "suggested to President Putin that he consider coming to the Prayer Breakfast next year, Feb 2017, and Pres. Putin did not say 'no'!" BUTINA observed that she believed that there were a number of conditions that should be met in order for President Putin to attend, including a personal invitation from the President of the United States and the attendance of at least fifteen other world leaders or heads of state. In a later March email, the organizer of the 2017 National Prayer Breakfast promised BUTINA he would provide ten seats at the 2017 event.

30. On September 16, 2016, BUTINA sent an email to U.S. Person 1 and U.S. Person 2 regarding organizing another Russian-American "friendship and dialogue" dinner in the District of Columbia. BUTINA suggested scheduling the next dinner at the beginning of October 2016, because "we only have 2 month left before the US elections and it's the time for building an advisors team on Russia for a new president. I am seriously worry that the candidates some upcoming day will suddenly realize that 'now' is the time to do something with Russia and will look for advisory among currently popular radically oppositional to Russia crowd of experts. Bad things happen than. I believe we can prevent it." [sic]

31. On October 4, 2016, U.S. Person 1 sent an email to an acquaintance. The email covered a number of topics. Within the email, U.S. Person 1 stated, "Unrelated to specific presidential campaigns, I've been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key POLITICAL PARTY 1 leaders through, of all conduits, the [GUN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION]." Based on my training, experience, and familiarity with this investigation, I believe that this email describes U.S. Person 1's involvement in BUTINA's efforts to establish a "back channel" communication for representatives of the Government of Russia.

32. On October 5, 2016, BUTINA and the RUSSIAN OFFICIAL exchanged the

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