MARIA BUTINA IN CONTACT WITH RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE
A Russian woman charged this week with serving as a foreign agent has been in regular contact with Russian intelligence, the Justice Department says, and she attempted to offer sex in exchange for a position with an organization she targeted.Prosecutors included that information in court documents as part of their request that Maria Butina be detained ahead of her trial because they say she is a "serious" flight risk.The government's attorneys cited "the nature of the charges, her history of deceptive conduct, the potential sentence she faces, the strong evidence of guilt, extensive foreign connections and her lack of any meaningful ties to the United States."They also said that Butina, who was indicted on Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., has "access to funds and an intention to move money outside the United States."