FACT-CHECK: Yes, Pro-Putin Commentator Scott Ritter IS a Convicted Sex Offender Who Tried To Groom Children

Propagandist and former US Marine Corps Intelligence officer Scott Ritter has been attempting to reinvent his own history to deceive his conspiracy theorist fans and counter his critics. But the facts prove that the pro-Kremlin mouthpiece is lying when it comes to his past involving children.

Ritter served as a junior US military analyst during Operation Desert Storm. He then served as a member of the UNSCOM overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, from which he resigned in protest. He later became a critic of the Iraq War and United States foreign policy in the Middle East. He is a regular contributor to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik and is now best known for spreading demonstrable disinformation on social media, particularly about Russia’s brutal ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

CLAIM: Scott Ritter has recently denied that he was convicted and imprisoned on charged relating to child sexual exploitation (CSE). In response to comments on Twitter, Ritter wrote: “Call me a pedophile to my face at your own risk. If you’re going to talk about me, at least be accurate when constructing your insults. I was never accused, charged, or convicted of anything involving pedophilia. For you to hide behind that term underscores your ignorance.”

Call me a pedophile to my face at your own risk. If you’re going to talk about me, at least be accurate when constructing your insults. I was never accused, charged, or convicted of anything involving pedophilia. For you to hide behind that term underscores your ignorance.

— Scott Ritter (@RealScottRitter) February 8, 2023

Ritter has also falsely claimed that he was the target of a smear campaign and politically-motivated plot, and has said “I went to prison for three years because of what I believe in.”

FACTS: Scott Ritter was convicted of trying to groom minors online by posing as a teenager to lure innocent children into engaging in sexual activity with him.

Under US law, a child usually refers to an individual who is a minor, who is below legal age or the age of majority. The age of majority being 18 in most states. It is therefore correct to refer to Ritter as an individual who attempted to engage in sexual activity with children.

Ritter was the subject of two law enforcement sting operations in 2001. He was charged in June 2001 with trying to set up a meeting with an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl. He was charged with a misdemeanor crime of “attempted endangerment of the welfare of a child”. The charge was dismissed and the record was sealed after he completed six months of pre-trial probation. After this information was made public in early 2003, Ritter said that the timing of the leak was politically motivated in order to silence his opposition to the Bush administration’s push toward war with Iraq.

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009 over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police said that he exposed himself, via a web camera, after the officer repeatedly identified himself as a 15-year-old girl. Ritter said in his own testimony during the trial that he believed the other party was an adult acting out her fantasy. The chat room had an “age 18 and above” policy, which Ritter stated to the undercover officer.

Scott Ritter is a convicted child groomer.

The New York Times reported the incident as follows:

The next month, Ritter waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. Charges included “unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation”.

Ritter rejected a plea bargain and was found guilty of all but the criminal attempt count in a courtroom in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on April 14, 2011.

In October 2011, he received a sentence of one and a half to five and a half years in prison. He was sent to Laurel Highlands state prison in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in March 2012 and paroled in September 2014.

Ritter has not apologised for his crimes against children – which could have been even worse had he not been caught – and has instead tried to reinvent himself online. He has since also aligned himself with Russia, who have used him as a political propaganda tool in their online attacks against America and its allies, and to spread false information on social media.

Ritter has since amassed a large following online, mainly from conspiracy theorists. Because his ‘fanbase’ consists of people who are predominantly known for being outspoken against child abusers, Ritter has repeatedly tried to whitewash his past and exploit their taste for conspiracy theories by portraying his imprisonment as some sort of ‘deep state’ plot.

Yet the fact remains that Scott Ritter is a convicted sex offender who on at least two occasions sought to engage in sexual activity with children.