
US prosecutors charge Russian-American political pundit of violating sanctions
CNN
The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against Russian-American political pundit Dimitri Simes on Thursday, alleging he was paid more than $1 million from a Russian news outlet in violation of US sanctions.
The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against Russian-American political pundit Dimitri Simes on Thursday, alleging he was paid more than $1 million from a Russian news outlet in violation of US sanctions. According to the indictment, Simes coordinated and communicated with the Russian government, including President Vladimir Putin, while hosting a show for RT, the Russian state media network. Simes would work with the Russian government over what the show would cover and how, the indictment says, highlighting coverage over the war with Ukraine that was favorable to Russia. Simes was a prominent part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into election interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller’s team found that Simes had contacts with several members of Trump’s campaign, including Jared Kushner, over the campaign’s positions on Russia. The special counsel did not uncover any evidence that Simes passed any information from Russia to the Trump campaign and, when Simes brought up Russian contacts to Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law told him it would be “bad optics for the Campaign to develop hidden Russian contacts,” according to the report.