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The Department of Justice is reportedly investigating multiple people with ties to Russian state media, weeks after federal officials warned that the Kremlin is attempting to influence the upcoming presidential election through the media.
The FBI has searched multiple individuals this month as part of the probe, including former U.N. weapons inspector and U.S. foreign policy critic Scott Ritter, and foreign policy commentator Dimitri Simes, US officials briefed on the investigation told The New York Times.
Neither are charged with crimes and the FBI told The Independent it has no comment regarding the reported investigation.
Ritter, who has contributed to the state-controlled Russia Today (RT) network since 2020, was the subject of an FBI search on August 7 at his home in New York state.
Agents were seen carrying out boxes of evidence, which reportedly included mobile phones, computers, and hard drives.
“I’m being targeted because I have made an effort to try to improve relations between the United States and Russia, to try to bring about arms control. To try to bring about peace,” Ritter told the Delmar, New York-based Spotlight News site the day of the search. “Apparently, someone in the U.S. government takes umbrage at this.”
A Virginia home owned by Simes, former head of the Center for the National Interest think tank, was reportedly searched on August 13.
“The FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity. We have no further comment as this is an ongoing matter,” the FBI told Rappahannock News regarding the search.
Simes, who hosted a talk show on Russia’s state Channel One network, told Russian channel Sputnik earlier this month he didn’t know why he was being targeted either.
“It clearly is an attempt to intimidate, not only somebody from Russia, but just anyone who goes against official policies and particularly against the deep state,” he said.
The commentator was mentioned in the Mueller report investigating Russian influence operations on the 2016 election, including for passing on what he believed was incriminating information about then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
Simes was not accused of any wrongdoing in the report.
In his interview with Sputnik, Simes added that he hadn’t been in the United States since 2022.
Last month, the office of the US Director of National Intelligence warned that Russian officials were attempting to use the media to influence US politics.
“Russian influence actors have undertaken distinct efforts during this election cycle to build and use networks of U.S. and other Western personalities to create and disseminate Russian-friendly narratives,” the DNI wrote in a public assessment. “These personalities post content on social media, write for various websites with overt and covert ties to the Russian Government, and conduct other media efforts.”
Any attempt to investigate alleged Russian influence over US elections is politically fraught, as the 2016 round of probes led to damaging reports about both candidates and accusations from Trump that the justice system was being wielded by his opponents to keep him from power.
