Maria Butina and John Wayne Bobbitt? Our National TV Show Has Jumped the Shark.

[muriel_volestrangler]

And Jack Abramoff too, for good measure.

Fire them all. I mean it, round up all the people in the Writer’s Room for 2018 and shit-can the lot of them. This story arc is waaaayyyyy out of hand. All these quotes are verbatim from the document filed by the Department of Justice in its attempt on Wednesday to keep Mariia Butina, the red-haired Russian "student" who is accused of violating lobbying statutes while worming her way into the conservative political elite in this country.
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During the course of this investigation, the FBI has determined that Butina gained access through U.S. Person 1 to an extensive network of U.S. persons in positions to influence political activities in the United States. Butina, age 29, and U.S. Person 1, age 56, are believed to have cohabitated and been involved in a personal relationship during the course of Butina’s activities in the United States. But this relationship does not represent a strong tie to the United States because Butina appears to treat it as simply a necessary aspect of her activities. For example, on at least one occasion, Butina offered an individual other than U.S. Person 1 sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization. Further, in papers seized by the FBI, Butina complained about living with U.S. Person 1 and expressed disdain for continuing to cohabitate with U.S. Person 1.

The unfortunate U.S. Person 1 is said to be Paul Erickson, a notorious conservative operative from South Dakota. The ever-essential Marcy Wheeler points us to a piece from The Rapid City Journal back in February that gives us the skinny on Erickson. His career already had brought him into contact with interesting people before he ever met Butina.

John Wayne Bobbitt was asleep on June 23, 1993, in Manassas, Va., when his wife, Lorena, used a kitchen knife to cut off his penis. She drove away in a car and threw the penis into a field, where it was found nearly two hours later by a cop and brought to a hospital where Mr. Bobbitt underwent a 9½ hour reattachment surgery. One of the surgeons involved in the operation was David Berman, who realized afterward that Bobbitt, who was 26 years old at the time, would need help dealing with a growing media horde and with legal matters (Lorena Bobbitt would be charged but found not guilty of malicious wounding, and John would be charged and acquitted of rape). In a recent interview with the Journal, Berman said he dined socially a day or two after the surgery with Jack Abramoff, Erickson’s friend who lived relatively nearby in Silver Spring, Md. Berman said he and Abramoff discussed Bobbitt’s need for representation.

Erickson said he was brought into the Bobbitt saga through his connection with Jack Abramoff’s brother, Bob. Soon, reporters were referring to Erickson as Bobbit’s “media adviser,” “entertainment lawyer” or “agent.”

Media reports said Erickson booked Bobbitt on an international “Love Hurts” tour, during which Bobbitt sold T-shirts, autographed steak knives and made appearances on programs including “The Howard Stern Show.” “No one who has come to instant celebrity will have systematically exploited as many avenues as John Wayne Bobbitt,” Erickson was quoted as saying at the time.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22353810/maria-butina-paul-erickson-russia-john-wayne-bobbitt/