| Notes |
When he returned to Congress in 2013, Sanford said he saw more of Erickson, and he invited his classmate last year to attend his post-Thanksgiving celebration at his farm when he learned Erickson wasn't returning home to South Dakota.
"We always have a big crowd at our farm for Thanksgiving, sort of a family-plus event, and so I invited him to come down," Sanford said. "He brought his girlfriend."
Sanford said he remembers meeting Butina, though the conversation was light and not serious.
"He said she was starting an NRA equivalent in Russia," Sanford said, joking it sounded like an "oxymoron" for Russia.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/20/politics/mark-sanford-maria-butina-russian-spy/index.html |