ctr nat'l interest

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see nunes kushner butina trump

Christian Whiton was a senior advisor in the Donald Trump and George W. Bush administrations. He is a senior fellow for strategy and public diplomacy at the Center for the National Interest and the author of “Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War.” fox off bs

an 12 24

guk

An analyst who once served as an advisor to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign is now in the crosshairs of the FBI, and he's since taken to Russian state media to rail against President Joe Biden and the Department of Justice.

Citing the Rappahannock News, the Guardian reported that the FBI recently conducted a raid on the Huntly, Virginia home of Dmitri Simes, who was named more than 100 times in DOJ special counsel Robert Mueller's 2018 report. While it remains unknown what the FBI was seeking in its raid, the Rappahannock News confirmed with the agency that it was indeed "conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity" on the 132-acre property that Simes bought in 2021 for $1.63 million. Real estate site Zillow now estimates the five-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 8,577 square-foot house to be worth more than $2.2 million.

In an interview with Russian state-run media outlet Sputnik News, Simes son, Dmitri Jr. said is father has not been in the U.S. since 2022. He also suggested the raid was politically motivated.

"The Biden regime is terrified of being called out over Ukraine and Israel," Simes Jr. tweeted. "Elements of [the] Biden regime are trying to disrupt any possibility for deescalation with Russia and plunge America into World War III."

The elder Simes — who hosts a talk show on Russian state-run media outlet Channel One — told Sputnik that the raid was "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."

"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," he added.

Simes is reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Russian media outlet Tass reporting that he attended a closed-door meeting with Putin in June. The Russian pundit also moderated a conversation with Putin at an economic forum in St. Petersburg last year. Previously, the Senate Finance Committee investigated Simes over his purported connections to Russian spy Maria Butina, who infiltrated MAGA circles during Trump's administration in efforts to set up a communications backchannel between Trump and Moscow.

According to the Guardian, Simes — who emigrated to the U.S. from Moscow in 1973 — served as an informal policy advisor to Trump's 2016 campaign after a meeting earlier that year with Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law). He reportedly advised the ex-president on a speech he wrote emphasizing greater cooperation between Washington and Moscow.

Prior to his work with Trump, Simes was an informal foreign policy advisor to former President Richard M. Nixon. He went on to lead the public policy think tank, the Center for the National Interest, which Nixon launched in 1994. Simes retired from the think tank in 2022.

Russian state media has leaned in on its support of Trump, even after he was convicted on 34 felony charges earlier this year. Russian pundit Dmitry Kulikov, who hosts "Solovyov Live," complained, "They wronged our Donald Trump" after the verdict. He and other Russian propagandists were openly hoping for a hung jury.

Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.

===

ap 9 24

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged a Russian-born U.S. citizen and former adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with working for a sanctioned Russian state television network and laundering the proceeds.

Indictments announced Thursday allege that Dimitri Simes and his wife received over $1 million dollars and a personal car and driver in exchange for work they did for Russia’s Channel One since June 2022. The network was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Simes, 76, and his wife, Anastasia Simes, have a home in Huntly, Virginia, and are believed to be in Russia.

“These defendants allegedly violated sanctions that were put in place in response to Russia’s illegal aggression in Ukraine,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said in a statement announcing the charges. “Such violations harm our national security interests — a fact that Dimitri Simes, with the deep experience he gained in national affairs after fleeing the Soviet Union and becoming a U.S. citizen, should have uniquely appreciated.”

The indictments come at a time of renewed concern about Russian efforts to meddle with the upcoming U.S. election using online disinformation and propaganda. On Wednesday federal authorities announced charges against two employees of the Russian media organization RT accused of covertly funding a Tennessee company that produced pro-Russian content.

Simes and the Washington think tank he led, the Center for the National Interest, figured prominently in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential ties to the Trump campaign.

The report chronicles interactions that the Soviet-born Simes, who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s, had with assorted figures in Trump’s orbit, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Before one such meeting, according to the Mueller report, Simes sent Kushner a letter detailing potential talking points for Trump about Russia and also passed along derogatory information about Bill Clinton that was then forwarded to other representatives of the campaign.

Simes’s think tank, which was founded by former President Richard Nixon, helped arrange a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington at which Simes introduced Trump, according to the report. Among those present was Sergei Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Simes was never charged with any crime in relation to the investigation.

After the report was released, Simes defended himself in an interview in The Washington Post: “I did not see anything in the Mueller report that in any way that would indicate any questionable activity on my part or on the center’s part.”

A second indictment alleges that Anastasia Simes, 55, received funds from sanctioned Russian businessman Alexander Udodov. Udodov was sanctioned last year for his support for the Russian government. He is the former brother-in-law of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and has been linked to business dealings with both of them. Udodov also has been investigated for money laundering.

It was not immediately clear if either defendant had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf. An attorney who previously represented Simes said he was no longer representing him. The Trump campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday.

In an interview with The New York Times before the charges were announced, Simes, who appears regularly on Channel One, defended the work he was doing.

“I assumed that what I was saying on Russian TV would not be to the liking of the Biden administration, but I also assumed that as long as it was just my opinion and was presented as such, it was not something for which I could be prosecuted,” he told the newspaper.

ERIC TUCKER

Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department and the special counsel cases against former President Donald Trump.

---

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In an interview with Russian state-run media outlet Sputnik News, Simes son, Dmitri Jr. said is father has not been in the U.S. since 2022. He also suggested the raid was politically motivated.

"The Biden regime is terrified of being called out over Ukraine and Israel," Simes Jr. tweeted. "Elements of [the] Biden regime are trying to disrupt any possibility for deescalation with Russia and plunge America into World War III."

"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," he added.

Simes is reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Russian media outlet Tass reporting that he attended a closed-door meeting with Putin in June. The Russian pundit also moderated a conversation with Putin at an economic forum in St. Petersburg last year. Previously, the Senate Finance Committee investigated Simes over his purported connections to Russian spy Maria Butina, who infiltrated MAGA circles during Trump's administration in efforts to set up a communications backchannel between Trump and Moscow.

Russian state media has leaned in on its support of Trump, even after he was convicted on 34 felony charges earlier this year. Russian pundit Dmitry Kulikov, who hosts "Solovyov Live," complained, "They wronged our Donald Trump" after the verdict. He and other Russian propagandists were openly hoping for a hung jury.

Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.

---

ref guk

FBI agents have raided and searched the Virginia home of Dimitri Simes, an author and policy analyst, who advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign and who currently hosts a current affairs program on Russia’s state-run Channel One.

The raid began on 13 August, the FBI told the local Rappahannock News, which first reported the story.

Simes, whose name was included more than 100 times in the 2019 Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, told the paper he was out of the country and had not been notified about the search ahead of time. He was not aware he was the focus of any current law enforcement investigation, he said.

“I’m puzzled and concerned,” he said. “I have not seen a warrant. I was not contacted by any law enforcement or anyone else whatsoever.”

In an interview with Russian government-owned Sputnik News, Simes said on Friday that 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 added: “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.”

Simes’s son, Dimitri Simes Jr, told Sputnik News that his father has not been in the United States since October 2022. “The Biden regime is terrified of being called out over Ukraine and Israel,” he tweeted on Friday. In another tweet, he added: “Elements of Biden regime are trying to disrupt any possibility for deescalation with Russia and plunge America into World War III.”

Simes, who was born in Moscow, emigrated to the United States in 1973. He served as an informal foreign policy adviser to President Richard Nixon before leading the Center for the National Interest for nearly three decades.

After meeting Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at a luncheon in honor of Henry Kissinger in March 2016, Simes began providing the Trump campaign with informal counsel on foreign policy, including advising on a speech Trump gave envisioning greater cooperation with Russia.

Simes and the Center for the National Interest featured prominently in the Mueller report, which cleared them of any wrongdoing. Around the same time, Simes underwent a Senate finance committee investigation into his contacts with Russian Central Bank official Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to infiltrate US conservative groups before the 2016 election.

Last year, Simes moderated a conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg international economic forum. And in June, Simes participated in a closed-door meeting with Putin, the state-owned Russian news agency Tass reported.

ref rap no lnx

Dennis Brack

Federal agents descended on a Huntly property Tuesday and maintained a steady presence there for several days.

“The FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity. We have no further comment as this is an ongoing matter,” Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Samantha Shero emailed the Rappahannock News Wednesday night in response to a request for information about the situation.

Two agents met a reporter at the gate of the property at 69 Twin Post Lane, off Hillsboro Road about 4.5 miles north of Flint Hill, Wednesday evening and confirmed the FBI was on site. A roll of yellow crime scene tape was on the ground next to the gate post.

raid-15b.jpg

Crime scene tape on the ground at the gate of the Huntly estate where FBI agents have been on scene since Tuesday.

Dennis Brack

A neighbor said numerous law enforcement officers have been going to and from the estate, named “Patria,” since Tuesday morning, at times seemingly removing items in trucks and trailers. Agents returned to the property again Thursday morning, appeared to leave Friday morning — and then returned late Friday afternoon.

Rappahannock County Circuit Court records show the 132.6-acre property was sold by Katherine Krebser to Dimitri K. Simes and his wife Anastasia R. Simes for $1.63 million in July 2021.

Dimitri Simes, 76, has been well known in the Washington, D.C., diplomatic world for decades and is considered an expert in Russian affairs. He was the longtime president and chief executive officer of the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank founded by former President Richard Nixon. Simes left the center in 2022.

Simes had close ties to the presidential campaign and administration of former President Donald Trump. Simes was among those who figured prominently in Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of potential Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. The report concluded that Simes did not act as an intermediary between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Simes co-hosts a current affairs show called “The Big Game” on Channel One, a television network controlled by the Russian government.

Reached on the phone Thursday morning, Simes told the Rappahannock News that he was out of the country and said he knew there was activity at his property but didn’t know exactly what was going on there.

“I was not officially notified of any action,” Simes said. “I have not seen a warrant. I was not contacted by any law enforcement or anyone else whatsoever.”

“I’m puzzled and concerned,” Simes said. “I certainly will take steps to get proper information and then to take proper action.”

Simes said he is not aware that he is the focus of any law enforcement investigation.

In an interview posted Friday afternoon by Sputnik News, a Russian government-owned outlet, Simes said 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."

“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," Simes told Sputnik News.

This is a developing story

+2Simes decries FBI raid of his Rappahannock County home: ‘They don’t want me back in the United States’

Simes decries FBI raid of his Rappahannock County home: ‘They don’t want me back in the United States’

Prominent policy analyst and Rappahannock County property owner Dimitri K. Simes spoke out Friday, calling the FBI raid of his Huntly property a U.S. government attempt to intimate him and others trying to promote a Russian-American dialogue.

When the FBI came calling in Huntly: Property owned by Russia-connected Dimitri Simes raided

Huntly homeowners Dimitri and Anastasia Simes indicted for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions on Russia

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/dc-wise-man-had-early-access-to-trumps-pro-russia-speech

dC. Wise Man Had Early Access to Trump’s Pro-Russia Speech

Photos obtained by The Daily Beast show that controversial think tank chief Dimitri Simes was closer than previously known to the speech’s drafting.

Betsy Swan

Political Reporter

Updated 09.06.18 9:49PM ET / Published 09.06.18 4:54AM ET

In the morning of April 21, 2016, a staffer at the Center for the National Interest, a Washington D.C., think tank, wandered into the office of Dimitri Simes, the group’s president.

The staffer saw a pile of papers on the desk titled “FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENSE OUTLINE.” The staffer realized the papers were the detailed outline, in bullet-pointed paragraphs, of a major foreign-policy address that then-candidate Donald Trump was set to deliver six days later as a guest of the center. The staffer used a cellphone to snap pictures of all five pages of the document.

More than two years later, Maria Butina, who once wrote for the center’s magazine and occasionally emailed with Simes, was arrested as an accused Kremlin agent. Subsequently, the person provided the photos to The Daily Beast. The photos’ metadata confirm they were taken on a cellphone on the morning of April 21, 2016. A second former staffer told The Daily Beast that he saw the same documents on Simes’ desk.

The pictures provide new insight into the creation of Trump’s historic foreign-policy speech. They also indicate that Simes was closer than previously known to the drafting of that speech. (Jacob Heilbrunn, the editor of the center’s magazine, wrote for Politico shortly after the speech that he didn’t know what was going to be in it. “I was curious as anyone to see what Trump would actually say,” he wrote.)

“The Committee has reason to believe that Mr. Simes played a central role in drafting portions of the speech related to Russia.”

— House Intelligence Committee Democrats

It isn’t unusual for a think tank chiefs to preview drafts of a speeches presented at their invitation. But Simes’ proximity to the speech shows that he had an early view into the crafting of a speech that would have historic significance for American foreign policy.Democrats on the House intelligence committee tried to investigate Simes’ relationship to Trump’s campaign, but Republican committee Chairman Devin Nunes blocked their efforts.

Presented with this account and with the pictures of the document, the center’s executive director, Paul Saunders, declined to comment. Heilbrunn emailed that he did not receive any preview of the speech. Simes did not respond to a request for comment but wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Sept. 5, 2018, that his think tank’s interaction with the Trump campaign had a “small scope.” Michael Glassner, the chief operating officer at Donald J. Trump for President, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. J.D. Gordon, a foreign-policy adviser to Trump on the 2016 campaign, told The Daily Beast he was not familiar with the document.

The pictures demonstrate that significant changes were made from the speech’s detailed outline to its final version—including the removal of lines condemning bigotry, praising legal immigration, and disparaging Russia.

The speech Trump ultimately delivered—a transcript is available here—had some notable differences from the lengthy outline that found its way to Simes’ desk. The document on Simes’ desk listed four main weaknesses in American foreign policy: overstretched resources, an unclear understanding of foreign-policy goals, allies afraid they cannot trust the U.S., and the disrespect of rivals.

The speech Trump delivered a week later, on April 27, included one more bullet-pointed weakness: “Our allies are not paying their fair share,” Trump proclaimed. The same concern is detailed in the document from Simes’ desk, but with less prominent billing. It’s a talking point Trump has been hammering for nearly two decades and continues to use in meetings with America’s NATO allies.

The outline also criticized American intervention in the Balkans under the Clinton administration—a move also criticized by the Kremlin. “Look what happened in the 1990s,” the outline said. “Even after the attacks on the USS Cole and our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, we continued to pursue nation-building in the Balkans. Then we got hit on 9/11, because our leaders were not sufficiently focused on the security of the American people.”

When Trump delivered his speech a week later, he didn’t mention the Balkans.

The outline also included a line speaking out against prejudice. “I reject bigotry of all kinds,” the document from Simes’ desk reads. “And I reject Senator Cruz’s proposal to patrol Muslim neighborhoods in our country. That is wrong.” In his final speech, Trump didn’t speak about bigotry in general or Cruz’s proposal to patrol Muslim neighborhoods in particular.

---

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/republican-think-tank-asked-accused-russian-spy-help-advance-donors-financial

Center for the National Interest is one of the most pro-Russia conservative think tanks in Washington. They hosted President Donald Trump's foreign policy speech praising Russia in 2016, when he was still a candidate.

But it turns out their closeness to Russia is greater than previously thought. A new investigation by The Daily Beast found disturbing interactions between the group's president, Dimitri Simes, and accused Russian spy Maria Butina:

[P]reviously unreported emails and direct messages between Butina and officials at the Center show her relationship with the think tank’s president—former Richard Nixon adviser Dimitri Simes—was closer than previously understood. The two didn’t just make plans to have dinner together. According to emails and Twitter DMs reviewed by The Daily Beast, Simes looked to use his connections with Butina and her associate, Russian Central Bank official Alexandr Torshin, to advance the business interests of one of the Center’s most generous donors.

The donor, former AIG CEO and New York Federal Reserve chairman Hank Greenberg,denies doing anything improper, and there is no evidence he even knew the Center was trying to negotiate on his behalf.

Nonetheless, the new report contradicts the claims of the group's executive director, Paul J. Saunders, who wrote earlier this month that the Center had had "very limited" interactions with Butina.

Butina, who was charged in July with working as an unregistered foreign agent in the United States, is believed to be a key actor in Russian influence on conservative political groups, at one point even allegedly offering sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization. In particular, she is thought to have played an important role in ties between the U.S. gun rights groups and wealthy Russian officials.

Torshin, her associate, is a Vladimir Putin-allied Russian oligarch and deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank, who allegedly funneled millions to the NRA. He has been accused of money laundering by the Spanish government and is currently listed for sanctions by the Treasury Department.

The prosecution of Butina is a separate case from the investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

ggl 12 24

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Quora

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