A former advisor to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claims his Virginia home was raided by FBI agents this week.
Dimitri Simes, whose name came up over 130 times in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report into Russian interference in the presidential election, told the Rappahannock News he was out of the U.S. and wasn’t notified ahead of Tuesday’s search.
He also insisted he’s not aware of being the focus of any law-enforcement investigation.
The Russian-born policy analyst advised Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The raid “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 later told the Russian government-owned Sputnik News.
“My suspicion is that instead of trying to get me to come to the United States and to interrogate me — or even to arrest me — their real purpose is to make sure that I would not come back,” said Simes, who hasn’t been in the U.S. since October 2022
Simes also compared the raid of his property in Huntly, about an hour outside Washington D.C., to law enforcement crackdowns on Trump and other political figures connected to the ex-president and current Republican presidential nominee, including ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
“A number of prominent Americans were subjected to searches or even put in jail, or made bankrupt,” he said.
“So, this is the way American law enforcement is working today? If somebody goes against the political mainstream, in particular against the Biden administration, the punishment may be very swift.”
His son, Dimitri Simes Jr, openly suggested the Biden administration is trying to intimate his dad and others who promote improving Russian-American relations.
“The Biden regime is terrified of being called out over Ukraine and Israel,” the younger Simes posted on X Friday.
He also alleged “elements of [President Biden’s] regime are trying to disrupt any possibility for de-escalation with Russia and plunge America into World War III.”
Simes moved to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s.
He worked as an informal foreign policy adviser under former President Richard Nixon before heading to the Center for the National Interest for nearly three decades.
He began providing Trump’s campaign with informal counsel on foreign policy in 2016, including advising on a speech where Trump said he envisioned the U.S. having greater cooperation with Russia.
Simes and the Center for the National Interest were featured prominently in the Mueller report, but were cleared of any wrongdoing.
“The FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity. We have no further comment as this is an ongoing matter,” an FBI spokesperson told the Rappahannock News.
