MIAMI, Fla. – A Russian woman charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election is making a stop in Miami before being deported to Russia on Friday, officials said.
Maria Butina, 30, was released Friday morning into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations custody en route to a Miami migration center before boarding a Moscow-bound flight the same day, officials said.
Butina spent the last 15 months in a Tallahassee, Florida, federal prison after she pleaded guilty to working as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.
The American University graduate was the first Russian person charged with crimes related to foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Butina is expected to return to her native Siberia.