The Russia connectionSuspected spy socialized with Trump campaign advisor
J. D. Gordon served for six months as the Trump campaign’s director of national security before leaving in August 2016. In November, after Trump was elected, Gordon was offered a role in the nascent Trump transition effort. Email show that suspected Russian agent Maria Butina communicated during the last few months of the 2016 presidential campaign and socialized in person on a couple of occasions. Noting that Butina networked extensively, Gordon said: “I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn’t come across?”
Emails show Trump campaign foreign policy advisor J. D. Gordon and suspected Russian agent Maria Butina communicated during the last few months of the 2016 presidential campaign and socialized in person on a couple of occasions.
Butina sought out interactions with J. D. Gordon, who served for six months as the Trump campaign’s director of national security before leaving in August 2016 and being offered a role in the nascent Trump transition effort, according to documents and testimony provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and described to The Washington Post.
The two exchanged several emails in September and October 2016, culminating in an invitation from Gordon to attend a concert by the rock band Styx in Washington. Gordon also invited Butina to attend his birthday party in late October of that year.
The Committee to Investigate Russia notes that Gordon says his contact with Butina means nothing, and he doesn’t believe she’s guilty. He also calls the Russia investigation a witch hunt.
“From everything I’ve read since her arrest last month, it seems the Maria Butina saga is basically a sensationalized click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of Republicans and NRA members she reportedly encountered over the past few years,” [Gordon] said in a statement to the Post, noting that she networked extensively. Gordon provided the same statement and some details of his interactions to the Washington Times, which published his account Friday afternoon after the Post contacted Gordon for comment.
“I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn’t come across?” Gordon asked.
Mr. Gordon, a retired Navy officer, first met Ms. Butina at a Swiss Embassy reception in September 2016. She was introduced by Paul Erickson, an NRA member who had befriended Ms. Butina.
She was in the company of notable conservatives, such as former ambassador to Switzerland, Faith Whittlesey, a Ronald Reagan loyalist who died in May at 79. She had invited Mr. Gordon to the event.
