FBI agents have raided the Virginia home of Dimitri Simes, a Russian-born author and policy analyst who advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and currently hosts a show on Russia’s state-run Channel One.
The raid, which began on August 13, was first reported by the Rappahannock News.
Simes, mentioned over 100 times in the 2019 Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, stated that he was out of the country and unaware of the search beforehand.
He expressed concern, saying he had not been contacted by law enforcement or shown a warrant.
In an interview with Sputnik News, Simes suggested the raid was an attempt to intimidate him for opposing US policies. He speculated that the real aim was to prevent his return to the US, rather than to interrogate or arrest him.
Simes’s son, Dimitri Simes Jr., claimed his father has not been in the U.S. since October 2022, criticizing the Biden administration for its stance on Ukraine and Israel. He alleged that elements of the administration are trying to disrupt efforts to deescalate tensions with Russia.
Simes, who emigrated from Moscow to the US in 1973, previously served as an informal foreign policy adviser to President Richard Nixon and led the Center for the National Interest for nearly 30 years.
He provided foreign policy counsel to Trump during his 2016 campaign, including advising on a speech advocating for greater cooperation with Russia.
Simes and his organisation were cleared of wrongdoing in the Mueller report but were involved in a Senate investigation concerning his contacts with Russian officials before the 2016 election.
Last year, Simes moderated a discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum and participated in a closed-door meeting with Putin in June, as reported by the Russian news agency Tass.