UPDATE: 9:49 AM ET –
Buzzfeed’s Tom Namako reports the woman in the White House photo is an NSC staffer, not Mariia Butina. We are leaving the remainder of this post as is but will remove later.
The woman the Dept. of Justice just charged with being a Russian foreign agent and spy, Mariia Butina, who has strong ties to both the NRA and the GOP, appears to be among the Russians President Donald Trump secretly invited into the Oval Office in May of 2017.
Last year, Americans were stunned to learn that top Russian agents, including then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, had been in the Oval Office. The meeting was kept secret, with no U.S. reporters allowed. It did not appear on the president’s daily schedule.
The only reporter in the room was a Russian news photographer, who was also part of the Russian government. Russian news organizations first published the photos, forcing the White House to admit the deception.
Kislyak is seen by the U.S. Intelligence services as a top spy and recruiter of spies.
But hidden – until now – in the photos may be Mariia Butina, the 29-year old who the DOJ on Monday said developed “relationships with U.S. persons” and infiltrated “organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation.”
The photos were taken just one day after President Trump had fired James Comey.
Some have been posting the images to social media, so to confirm they were not photoshopped after the fact, NCRM found the same photo, including what appears to be the image of Butina, in a New York Times article dated May 10, 2017.
UPDATE: 9:39 AM –
Some are backtracking, suggesting the woman who appears to be Butina may be an NSC staffer, Cari Lutkins. NCRM cannot confirm either. We’ve updated the title and text appropriately to indicate it may be Butina.
Here’s one of the images via Twitter:
Here’s Butina with NRA chief Wayne LaPierre:
Here’s Butina with GOP Governor Scott Walker:
Butina with Rick Santorum: