For those who still, even now, insist that the Russia scandal has been discredited, this hasn’t been a great week. In fact, as NBC News reported, the broader story took an important turn when the Justice Department indicted a contributor to a Russian state-run TV channel, charging him and his wife with violating U.S. sanctions and money laundering.
The indictment, filed and unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses Dmitri Simes, 76, and his wife, Anastasia Simes, 55, of participating in a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions for the benefit of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster and to launder money obtained through that scheme.
If Simes’ name sounds at all familiar, it’s not your imagination: The dual U.S.-Russian citizen worked as an advisor to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and as NBC News’ report added, Simes’ name also “appeared numerous times in the report compiled by special counsel Robert Mueller on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
News of the newly unsealed indictment comes the same week as Biden administration officials announced a series of efforts intended to combat the Kremlin’s 2024 effort to target U.S. elections, including sanctions and a criminal indictment against two employees of the state-owned RT media network, who were accused of conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
That indictment, of course, documented prosecutors’ allegations that employees of the Russia-backed media network RT funded and directed a scheme that sent millions of dollars to prominent right-wing commentators through Tenet Media, a leading platform for pro-Trump commentary. (The commentators have denied any wrongdoing and characterized themselves as “victims.”)
This was, according to the Justice Department, one of “covert projects” launched by the RT employees to influence American politics ahead of the elections.
That same indictment also noted that one of the charged Russians asked Tenet Media to promote a video of “a well-known U.S. political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia” — an apparent reference to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. A Tenet employee suggested “it just feels like overt shilling,” but was told to “put it out there.”
For all the chatter in far-right circles about the Russia scandal being a “hoax,” a Washington Post analysis explained, “The new indictment reinforces that it wasn’t. Russia began trying to influence American politics a decade ago, ultimately finding a sympathetic ally in Trump. Now, instead of trying to make fake personalities who can elevate contentious issues to Russia’s benefit, there’s a stable of Trump-allied voices who already are.”
This was published before the Justice Department indicted a former Trump advisor with allegedly participating in a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions for the benefit of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster.