BETHLEHEM — FBI agents and State Police on Wednesday descended on the home of Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector who in June had his passport seized by the U.S. Department of State as he attempted to fly to Russia for a conference...
Ritter has a criminal history unconnected to his public stances on foreign policy: He was convicted in 2011 in Monroe County, Penn. after Barrett Township police presented evidence that in 2009 he had masturbated in front of a webcam being viewed by an undercover officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl. He served three years behind bars.
That investigation was not Ritter’s first brush with the law involving allegations of sexual interest in children. In 2001, he was caught in a police sting in which officers said he had tried to lure a Colonie police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl to a Burger King in Menands. The case was effectively dismissed and records were sealed, but information about that incident emerged in 2003...
In the years since he was released from prison, Ritter has become an enthusiastic supporter of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the war with Ukraine, likening the besieged country to a “rabid dog” and calling the invasion a preemptive act of self-defense. He has been a regular commentator on RT, a Russian state-owned media outlet.
