Revealed: Russian intelligence pulled strings to assist NRA during Moscow junket set up by Maria Butina

The successor organization to the Russian KGB pulled strings to help Maria Butina organize a Moscow trip for bigwigs at the National Rifle Association, according to an email published by The Daily Beast.

The email was sent by Butina's boyfriend Paul Erickson to then-incoming NRA President Pete Brownell.

Erickson referred to Brownell as "Austin Powers" and an "International Man of Mystery" in the email, where he praised Butina for help provided by the successor organization of the KGB, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, which is known as the FSB in America.

“Miss Butina has (apparently) moved heaven and earth and manipulated the Russian FSB (the current incarnation of the old KGB) and gotten you cleared for a tour of one (1) Russian arms factory the day before the NRA delegation arrives in Moscow,” he continued. “She found a way to shrink a normally 3-week process into about 3-days (probably because most of the FSB agents ‘assigned’ to her want to marry her).”

Butina subsequently pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent.

Last Wednesday, Erickson was indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges.

Brownell was succeeded as President of the NRA by Iran-Contra figure Oliver North.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the NRA according to reporting by CNN.