Racket readers should recall an interview published in this space in March with Dimitri Simes, a prominent Russian journalist who in August of 2024 became inveigled in one of the strangest and most disturbing speech cases of our times. While he and wife Anastasia Rurikova Simes were away, the FBI raided his Virginia home, seizing all his possessions but one. “My handgun,” Simes said. “They put it on my night table.”
A month later, Simes was indicted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), charged essentially with violating a sanctions regime by hosting a television program in Russian, in Russia. It was “a totally unprecedented use of the sanctions laws,” said Michel Paradis, one of several attorneys representing Simes. Paradis has worked on some of the more vexing national security cases of this era, including representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees. In the Simes case, Paradis — who’s written books about Dwight Eisenhower and the extraordinary flight over Tokyo by the “Doolittle Raiders” — finds a prosecution with few historical analogs. He and fellow Steptoe counsel Jason Wright will be part of today’s press conference.
While speech advocates have tended to focus on offenses that either took place before the second Trump presidency (e.g. the Twitter Files) or after his re-inauguration (the “jawboning” of Jimmy Kimmel, the recent revocation of White House passes for MS NOW, CNN, and Politico, cases involving defendants like Simes who’ve been pursued by both Democratic and Republican administrations have garnered little coverage. Simes today will give an update on his case, with lawyers Paradis and Wright on hand to answer legal questions. I’ll be moderating. You can participate in the event here.
Or, watch the event live on Substack, YouTube, and Twitter.
Below also is the press release issued by the Simes team:
DIMITRI SIMES, INDICTED JOURNALIST, TO HOST PRESS CONFERENCE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 TO DISCUSS PRESS FREEDOMS & RUSSIA/U.S. RELATIONS
Moderated by Matt Taibbi
Dimitri Simes, the federally indicted, internationally celebrated journalist and political commentator, will speak with U.S. press in a virtual press conference from Moscow on Friday, September 25th, from 2:00 pm to 2:45 p.m. Eastern time.
Matt Taibbi, award winning author and journalist, will moderate the discussion. Simes will make a brief opening statement and then will have a moderated discussion with Taibbi. Journalists will be able to ask questions after the discussion.
Simes, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Russia, is under a federal indictment filed in the waning days of the Biden Administration. He and his wife’s Huntly, Virginia, home was raided on August 13, 2024, and their possessions, including valuable art and an icon that was a gift from Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, were seized by federal agents.
The Simeses were in Moscow at the time of the raid and were indicted in September 2024. They presumably will be arrested if they return to the U.S.
The accusation against Simes is simply that he openly works for Channel One, a Russian television channel that the U.S. government placed under economic sanctions in 2022.
Simes and his attorney will discuss the prosecution and the First Amendment freedoms he believes the Department of Justice violated by indicting him, as he puts it, “for the so-called crime of working as a legitimate journalist for a Russian television station.”
Simes, who is 78, helped to establish and served as president of the Washington-based think tank, the Center for the National Interest, and advised former Presidents Nixon and Reagan on security matters, particularly regarding the former Soviet Union. He also informally advised members of the Trump campaign and transition team prior to the President’s first taking office in 2016.
Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated alleged ties between the Russian government and the 2016 Trump campaign, carefully studied Simes’ role in the alleged “Russiagate” conspiracy, mentioning the journalist some 100 times. Simes was completely exonerated in the Mueller Report.
Simes has frequently been a contributor to major American media, including The New York Times and Washington Post. He has also appeared dozens of times as a guest on American television as an expert commentator.
Simes began working as a talk-show host in Moscow in 2018, for Russia’s Channel One, which was sanctioned by the Biden Administration in 2022.
The New York Times recently interviewed Dimitri Simes and has described Simes’ criminal case as a core test of the First Amendment. “This moment highlights the importance of the First Amendment protections against the government efforts to crack down on whatever it wants to call propaganda,” Stanford Law Professor Evelyn Douek told the Times, “because once you give that power to the government, you don’t get to choose which government gets to wield that power.”
The DOJ added money-laundering charges against Simes, apparently because he paid his substantial U.S. tax bill with earnings from Channel One. The indictment does not allege that Simes hid or misappropriated any money.
“It’s perfectly understandable that the Department of Justice would look askance at a Russian-owned business, whether in concrete or communications,” Simes says. “But attacking a journalist just trying to do his job is miles beyond what the First Amendment allows.”
He continued: “I value my American citizenship, and I revere the freedom of the press as historically championed by the United States. This indictment is an outrageous perversion of that freedom, and is an affront not only to me, but to anyone who embraces the free and open exchange of ideas among journalists and the public at large.”
“My work falls entirely within the realm of what our Constitution was designed to protect—vigorous, informed dialogue, including ideas contrary to the majority view. The Founders formulated no exception for ‘speech we don’t like.’”
Simes and his U.S. lawyer will address the details of the U.S. indictment; the progress of his defense against the DOJ case; and the general circumstances of his struggle to remain free and to be able to resume working in both countries and to visit with and consult his former colleagues in the U.S.
“Working for a foreign broadcaster should not make me an exile,” Simes added. “My journalism work is just another piece of American apple pie, if of a different flavor.”
DIMITRI SIMES PRESS CONFERENCE
What: Dimitri Simes, Russian/American television commentator, holds press conference about his federal indictment.
Who: Dimitri K. Simes, dual U.S./Russian citizen, Matt Taibbi, and his legal counsel, Michel Paradis and Jason Wright.
When: Friday, September 25th 2 p.m. Eastern Time
Where: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86984468429?pwd=Dv5t5VkEWB7YBcQEzF46chqdzSa9oH.1
Note: The Zoom feed will also concurrently stream on Substack, YouTube, and Twitter.
Hope you post the video after the live discussion!
"Simes, a prominent Russian journalist who in August of 2024 became inveigled..." I don't believe "inveigle" is the right word here.