The RT contributor’s house was raided by the FBI on Wednesday
Former US Marine and journalist Scott Ritter has accused the US government of trying to intimidate him for his work as a journalist. Federal agents and state police searched his New York home on Wednesday.
Ritter, who is also a former UN weapons inspector, said in a video statement on Thursday that the search warrant was based on suspicions that he had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The authorities seem to be concerned about his relationship with RT and the news agency Sputnik, he said.
According to Ritter, the FBI agents said he was working for the Russian government and receiving directions from the two Russian outlets in exchange for payment.
Ritter insisted that he is not a foreign agent and pointed out that he receives payment from any journalistic entity he provides content to.
Ritter also dismissed as absurd the claim that his articles and podcasts were designed to influence the opinions of Americans on behalf of the Russian government.
He called the raid an attempt by the US government to intimidate him and discourage him from working with Russian-based media outlets.
”There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that I will back down because I’m doing nothing wrong,” he said. He added that he is an American citizen who is holding his government accountable and exercising his constitutional rights.
Ritter said the US government has declared war on him, his ability to write, speak, and interact with Americans and the global community.
”It’s not a war I plan on losing,” Ritter concluded.
Ritter is a former US Marine Corps major who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, arguing that Saddam Hussein’s government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as the US claimed at the time.
According to the US Department of Justice, the US Foreign Agents Registration Act “requires certain agents” to disclose their relationship with “foreign principals,” thus “informing the public on the identity of persons engaging in political activities on behalf of foreign governments.”
Similar legislation in Russia has been heavily criticized in the West as oppressive and a crackdown on dissent.