(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The United States government allegedly seized the passport of a prominent Biden administration critic as he traveled to attend an international conference in Russia where Biden rape accuser Tara Reade is also reportedly expected to be in attendance.
BREAKING: Scott Ritter's passport was just seized by the US State Department after boarding a flight to a conference in St. Petersburg.
This follows actions against other independent journalists and media outlets, including InfoWars.
Are we witnessing the fall of freedom?… pic.twitter.com/s5JeGsclUq
— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) June 4, 2024
Scott Ritter—a retired U.S. Marine and former United Nations weapons inspector who has, in the past, been critical of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy—was en route to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia when feds stripped him of his passport as he tried to board a flight in New York, the Gateway Pundit reported.
Some conflicting online reports Monday indicated that Judge Andrew Napolitano, once a well known Fox News personality, had also been removed from the plane, although those appeared to have been taken down after the fact.
Ritter reportedly said that Napolitano had cancelled the flight for unrelated reasons.
According to Ritter’s account of the situation, he received no explanation as to why the search and seizure took place.
“I was boarding the flight. Three [police] officers pulled me aside,” he said, noting that they took his property for no apparent reason.
“They took my passport. When asked why, they said ‘orders of the State Department.’ They had no further information for me.”
The officials reportedly kept Ritter’s passport, also on behalf of the State Department.
The theme for this year’s International Economic Forum meeting is “The Foundations of a Multipolar World – The Formation of New Areas of Growth.”
The forum, which seems to be Russia’s answer to the World Economic Forum, will grapple with important geopolitical affairs such as the role of the emerging BRICS alliance, and the cultivation of essential resources including oil, rare-earth metals and water. It also features an accompanying cultural festival.
Although the U.S. is not technically at war with Russia and there is no formal travel ban, recent reports have indicated that President Joe Biden authorized Ukrainian forces to use U.S. weapons in strikes in Russian territory, in what would surely be considered an escalation of hostilities and a deepening of America’s involvement in the ongoing conflict.
It was not immediately clear, however, that it was Ritter’s wellbeing administration officials were most concerned with safeguardling.
Ritter has long been an outspoken critic of Biden’s foreign policy. In 2022, he called Biden “a war criminal” due to his actions in Ukraine.
According to a since-deleted social-media post Ritter, Biden helped Ukraine promote anti-Russian propaganda in order to cover up for Ukrainian war crimes.
“Congratulations America,” he wrote, “we’ve created yet another Presidential war criminal!”
But the bad blood between the two goes back even farther. In 1998, while Biden was in the Senate, Ritter testified before the Senate in his capacity as UN weapons inspector.
At that hearing, Biden chastised him for allegedly failing to do his job well.
“Do you think you should be the one to decide when to pull the trigger,” Biden asked facetiously at the time.
