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The US Department of Justice has raided the homes of two Americans with ties to Russian state TV networks.
What’s the deal: The FBI recently raided the homes of Scott Ritter and Dimitri Simes as part of a broader investigation into possible Kremlin interference in the 2024 US presidential election. While the Department of Justice has not commented on the raids, FBI agents were observed leaving both homes with electronic devices and documents from both residences.
More on Ritter & Simes: Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, is known for his frequent contributions to Russian state media, often aligning with Kremlin narratives, especially on the Ukraine war. Dimitri Simes, a former adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, hosts a weekly program on Russia’s state-run Channel One and hasn’t been in the US since 2022. These raids are part of the Department of Justice’s broader investigation into Americans connected to Russian state TV networks.
Previous warnings from the US: Months before the raids, the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC) warned that Russia was targeting Americans with propaganda to influence the upcoming election. In an earlier statement, FMIC said, “These firms have created influence platforms, directly and discreetly engaged Americans, and used improved tools to tailor content for US audiences, while hiding Russia’s hand. Russian influence actors have undertaken distinct efforts during this election cycle to build and use networks of US and other Western personalities to create and disseminate Russian-friendly narratives. Moscow continues to use a broad stable of influence actors and tactics and is working to better hide its hand, enhance its reach, and create content that resonates more with US audiences.”
Statement from Ritter: In a brief statement outside his home earlier this month, Ritter said, “Things like this have a chilling effect on free speech. There’s no doubt that I’m being targeted because of statements I’ve made about US policy in Ukraine. I’m being targeted because I have made an effort to improve relations between the United States and Russia, to try to bring about arms control, to try to bring about peace. Apparently, somebody in the US government takes umbrage at this, so they executed a search warrant.”
