Trump Publicly Took Question from Russian Spy in 2015

Maria Butina was arrested Sunday, July 15 on charges of being a Russian spy. In 2015, then-candidate Trump took a question from her at FreedomFest, which describes itself as "the world's largest gathering of free minds."

The DOJ announced today that Butina was in contact "with US persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics." Her goal was to advance the goals of Russia.

Speaking at FreedomFest in 2015, Donald Trump took a question from Butina about Russian sanctions.

Here's Trump in 2015, suggesting to Maria Butina (Russian crime boss Alexander Torshin's special assistant) that he would lift sanctions on Russia.

"I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin... I don't think you'd need the sanctions."

/9/ pic.twitter.com/dCXqktvSKs

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) January 18, 2018

In answering her question, then-candidate Trump stated that he would "get along very nicely with Putin" and that he thought Russia would need to have sanctions against it.