| Notes |
How did the South Dakota Teen Age Republicans end up hosting a woman at their 2015 camp who was later accused of being an unregistered foreign agent for Russia?
Quite innocently, according to the current U.S. House candidate who was running the camp at the time.
Dusty Johnson won the Republican nomination for U.S. House this past June, but in July 2015, he was directing the Teen Age Republicans Leadership Camp at Camp Rimrock near Rapid City in the Black Hills.
Johnson said he was contacted that summer by Paul Erickson, a longtime Republican political operative who grew up in Vermillion and has an apartment in Sioux Falls. Erickson offered to bring Maria Butina to speak at the camp, and described her as an advocate for expanded gun rights in Russia who was on an American speaking tour, Johnson said. |