A former adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is claiming that his Virginia home was searched by FBI agents this week.
Dimitri Simes, who was named more than 130 times in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2019 presidential election, Rappahannock News He was outside the United States and had not been notified ahead of Tuesday’s search.
He also denied being aware of any law enforcement investigation.
The Russian-born policy analyst advised Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“This attack is clearly an attempt to intimidate not only Russians, but anyone who opposes official policies, especially the deep state,” he later told Kremlin-owned media. Sputnik News.
“My suspicion is that rather than bringing me to the U.S. for questioning or arrest, their real goal is to stop me from coming back,” said Sims, who has not been in the U.S. since October 2022.
Symes also likened the raid on his estate in Huntley, about an hour outside Washington, D.C., to law enforcement crackdowns on politicians with ties to former president and current Republican presidential candidate Trump, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
“Many prominent Americans have been raided, jailed or bankrupted,” he said.
“So this is how law enforcement works in America today? If someone goes against the political mainstream, especially the Biden administration, punishment can come very swiftly.”
His son, Dimitri Simes Jr., has openly suggested that the Biden administration is trying to intimidate his father and others who push for improved relations between Russia and the United States.
“The Biden administration is afraid of being blamed for Ukraine and Israel,” Sims’ son wrote on X Friday.
He also said, [President Biden’s] The US administration is trying to thwart possible détente with Russia and plunge the US into World War III.”
Symes immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s.
He served as an informal foreign policy adviser to former President Richard Nixon and later worked at the Center for the National Interest for nearly three decades.
He began providing informal foreign policy advice to the Trump campaign in 2016, including on a speech in which Trump said he envisioned the United States working more closely with Russia.
Symes and the National Interest Center were featured prominently in the Mueller report but were cleared of any wrongdoing.
“The FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement action. As this is an ongoing matter, we will have no further comment,” an FBI spokesperson told the Rappahannock News.
