DOJ Cracks Down on Russian Disinformation Before Election

Russia is still trying to interfere in U.S. elections, but this time the DOJ is taking a tougher stance and is investigating Americans who've worked for Russian state TV.

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Russia is getting nervous about the state of the U.S. election. (To read about day 3 of the DNC, click here.)

2024 is a critical election that Russian President Vladimir Putin would very much like to see ex-president and convicted felon Donald Trump win. After President Joe Biden passed the baton to his Vice President Kamala Harris, around whom support continues to coalesce from every corner of American life, the fate of the looming fascist shadow of Project 2025, a weird convicted felon and his very creepy running mate didn’t seem as certain as it once had — and that is a problem for Russia because an effective democracy is a threat to autocrats everywhere.

On Russia state TV, they’re struggling to propagandize their way around “Trump’s diminishing chances of a victory in the upcoming election.”

Yikes.

Fortunately, the third time around our government is finally stepping up to the plate even though it leaves them open to accusations of partisanship. (I would suggest that if a political party views protecting our national security and our elections as partisan, then they might be the problem.)

Investigating Americans tied to Russian state-run media

There’s been a lot of fair criticism of the DOJ, but on this matter they appear to be doing their job.

“The Department of Justice has begun a broad criminal investigation into Americans who have worked with Russia’s state television networks, signaling an aggressive effort to combat the Kremlin’s influence operations leading up to the presidential election in November, according to American officials briefed on the inquiry,” the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

This reporting followed up on an event reported by a local paper (and shared at the time by Sarah on Twitter) on August 16 that the FBI had raided a 132 acre property owned by Dimitri K. Simes and his wife Anastasia R. Simes. Dimitri figured “prominently” in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian efforts to interfere in the election Trump won in 2016.

Simes currently co-hosts a show on a TV network that is controlled by the Russian government. He also worked for a think tank founded by that other Republican thug and former president Richard Nixon, and he had “close ties” with the presidential campaign AND administration of ex-president Donald Trump.

Huh.

Agents stayed for days, put up yellow crime scene tape, and were seen by a neighbor carting items off in trucks and trailers.

On August 16, Julia Davis reported, “Meanwhile in Russia: state TV pundits nervously discussed the FBI's search of Dimitri Simes home in Virginia. As usual, they blamed Ukrainians for turning him in, and compared Simes to Scott Ritter and Ernest Hemingway.”

Ah, yes. Scott Ritter. Interesting… because:

The NYT reported put the first raid into broader perspective with the new information that F.B.I. agents ALSO conducted a search of the Delmar, N.Y. home of Scott Ritter on August 7th, who also has a close tie to Russian state media. In fact, he has worked as a contributing writer for RT (Russia Today is a Russian state-controlled television network funded by the Russian government). FBI and state police took mobile phones, computers and hard drives but he was not arrested.

So that’s two people with ties to Russian state media whose homes have been searched by the FBI. “More searches are expected soon, some of the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss investigations. Criminal charges are also possible, they said.”

First Amendment

The Russians appear to be using Russian state-run media as an attempt to weaponize the First Amendment.