U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. January 10, 2012. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM The U.S. Department of Justice unveiled on Monday the arrest and criminal complaint against a Russian woman charged with conspiring against the United States as an undisclosed agent of the Russian Federation. An affidavit by FBI special agent Kevin Helson described Butina as working with American political operatives, including one who worked with her to “arrange introductions” to people involved in “an organization promoting gun rights.” Butina, who founded such a pro-gun rights group in Russia, has previously been linked to the U.S.-based National Rifle Association. The New York Times has reported that she leveraged her ties to the NRA in a bid to set up a 2016 meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-candidate Donald Trump. The announcement of the criminal charge comes just hours after President Trump met with Putin at a summit conference in Helsinki, Finland. In a press conference alongside Putin Monday, Trump questioned the findings of American intelligence services that found Russia had mounted efforts to interfere in the U.S. 2016 elections. On July 13, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also announced a federal grand jury indictment against a dozen Russian intelligence officers, related to their hacking into Democratic National Committee computers and the theft of emails of Hillary Clinton campaign staffers in 2016. That indictment echoed the American intelligence community's consensus that Russia had interfered in the U.S. presidential election in 2016, hoping to help secure Trump's election. Butina's stateside work—including her relationship with Paul Erickson, a prominent figure in D.C. Republican circles and Alexander Torshin, a former top Russian politician with ties to the NRA—was previously reported by the Daily Beast.