The former head of Overstock who claimed he was romantically involved with a Russian spy said the FBI made him sleep with the flame-haired secret agent.
Patrick Byrne, the ex-CEO of Overstock.com, insisted the alleged tryst with Maria Butina was part of a “deep state” government conspiracy when he appeared Thursday on CNN, hours after he resignedfrom the discount furniture seller.
“They wanted me to engage and so I did,” Byrne told CNN host Chris Cuomo. “I went and engaged. It immediately turned romantic as these things do.”
Byrne claimed that the FBI agents then ordered him to break up with Butina, only to later ask him to “rekindle” the romance in summer 2016 as they investigated Russian election meddling.
“[The federal agents] said, ‘We want to be clear – this never happens in the United States,’” Byrne said. “’We are the good guys. We don’t work like the bad guys, but we need to ask you to rekindle a romantic relationship with Maria Butina.'”
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https://nypost.com/2019/08/23/ex-overstock-ceo-claims-russian-spy-tryst-was-part-of-deep-state-plot/