Federal prosecutors have accused the attorney representing alleged Russian spy Maria Butina of flouting local rules and ignoring court warnings by speaking to the press.

Local criminal rules prohibit lawyers in a case from speaking publicly about it, since those statements could interfere with a fair trial or prejudice jurors. Lawyers are also restricted from making any “extrajudicial statement” that might reveal a witness' identity or from discussing evidence in the case.

“Despite this clear prohibition, the government has encountered multiple recent instances of you in the press commenting about the merits and evidence of this case,” prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., wrote to Butina's lawyer, Robert Driscoll of McGlinchey Stafford.