Celia Aniskovich and Pete Strzok Talk Spy Affair
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Remember Maria Butina? She was the Russian graduate student at American University and gun enthusiast who was arrested for being an unregistered foreign agent shortly after the Russian electoral interference scandal broke. She eventually pled guilty to a lesser charge, served her time and was deported back to Russia. She is now the subject of a six-part podcast series by Celia Aniskovich called Spy Affair. Benjamin Wittes sat down with Celia and Pete Strzok, the former FBI agent, to discuss Maria Butina, who she is, the investigation of her and how it all fits into Russia's plans in the period around Donald Trump's election.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | Maria turned over all of these text messages. |
| 0:37.0 | She never claimed I didn't send them. |
| 0:39.0 | It wasn't me. |
| 0:41.0 | She never said those pictures aren't of me. |
| 0:43.0 | You know, she answered all of these questions about what she was doing and why she was here. |
| 0:47.0 | And I think the division I've seen in terms of interpretation is sort of twofold. |
| 0:53.0 | You know, someone might say Maria Bettina infiltrated the NRA. |
| 0:59.0 | Bob Driscoll would say, Maria Bettina joined the NRA. |
| 1:01.0 | She paid her dues like any other person who joins the NRA. |
| 1:05.0 | You know, Maria would say that she wasn't acting as an agent of torsion. |
| 1:11.0 | She was simply doing a favor for a personal friend. |
| 1:15.0 | I'm Benjamin Witteson. This is the LawFair podcast May 18th, 2021. |
| 1:21.0 | You remember Maria Bettina? |
| 1:24.0 | She was the Russian graduate student at American University, |
| 1:29.0 | gun enthusiast, who was arrested for being an unregistered foreign agent |
| 1:36.0 | shortly after the Russian electoral interference scandal broke. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.