GOP operative who dated Maria Butina pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering: report

Yet another Republican operative caught up in the 2016 scandal into Russian election interference will plead guilty to federal crimes.

"Paul Erickson, the former boyfriend of convicted Russian agent Maria Butina, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering according to a plea agreement filed in a South Dakota federal court Monday afternoon," The Daily Beast reports. "In a two-page statement detailing the factual basis for the plea, Erickson said he conned someone called only “D.G.” into wiring him $100,000, under the pretense that the money was for a real estate investment in North Dakota."

Erickson also admitted wiring $1,000 of the money to somebody called only "M.B." in court records.

"The case against Erickson, a well-known conservative operative who shuttled between D.C. and South Dakota, was separate from the one lodged against Butina in Washington, D.C.," The Beast reported. "Erickson became involved in relationship with Butina in 2013. As The Daily Beast previously reported, the duo dressed up as Rasputin to Butina’s flame-haired Empress Alexandra during a 2016 birthday party. The over-the-top gathering included an ice sculpture of a bottle imprinted with the Soviet hammer and sickle from which vodka flowed."

Read the full report.