Senate Panel Probes 2015 Meetings Involving Russian Maria Butina and Fed, Treasury Officials
16 Febbraio 2019 - 04:06AM
Dow Jones News
By Kate Davidson
Senators are seeking information about Obama-era meetings
between Treasury and Federal Reserve officials and Maria Butina,
the alleged Russian agent who pleaded guilty to conspiring to
influence U.S. policy.
The Senate Finance Committee's Republican chairman, Sen. Chuck
Grassley of Iowa, and top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, sent
letters Friday requesting all records relating to 2015 meetings
with Ms. Butina involving then-Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer
and Nathan Sheets, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary
for international affairs at the time.
The letters cited a Reuters report that said the officials met
with Ms. Butina and Alexander Torshin, who was then the deputy
governor of the Russian central bank, to discuss U.S.-Russia
relations. Mr. Torshin has since been targeted by U.S. Treasury
sanctions against several government officials and allies of
President Vladimir Putin over what Washington called "destabilizing
activities," including seizing Crimea and menacing Ukraine.
"Given what is now known about them from public court filings,
it is concerning that Ms. Butina and Mr. Torshin were able to gain
access to high-level administration officials responsible for U.S.
economic and monetary policy to reportedly discuss U.S. Russian
economic relations," Messrs. Grassley and Wyden wrote in letters to
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Chairman Jerome
Powell.
The committee is requesting any records relating to the
meetings, and any meetings between other officials at the two
agencies and Ms. Butina or Mr. Torshin, or any meetings involving
the Center for the National Interest, a Washington think tank that
the senators said reportedly arranged the encounters with Messrs.
Fischer and Sheets. The senators also asked for records of any
communications Mr. Fischer and Mr. Sheets had with the Russians,
and asked whether either official held a security clearance at the
time of the meeting.
A Fed spokesman said the central bank had received the letter
and would respond. A Treasury spokeswoman didn't immediately
respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Fischer last summer confirmed Ms. Butina's presence at a
meeting in April 2015, which she attended as an interpreter for Mr.
Torshin.
"It was standard for members of the Federal Reserve Board to
meet and talk with counterparts from other central banks," Mr.
Fischer said at the time.
Write to Kate Davidson at kate.davidson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 15, 2019 21:51 ET (02:51 GMT)
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