Tenet media Chen

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well not punked if knew rooskies

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[### Trump Brings Putin's Booted Propaganda Goon Back to U.S.

The Daily Beast

https://www.thedailybeast.com › trump-brings-putins-bo...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-brings-putins-booted-propaganda-goon-lauren-chen-back-to-us/)

6 hours ago — ... State Department senior adviser Joe Rittenhouse. She credited Rittenhouse with “moving mountains to ensure we were able to return in time ...Read more

[### Right-Wing Influencers Rejoice: Trump Admin Gives a Visa ...

Gizmodo

https://gizmodo.com › right-wing-influencers-rejoice-tr...](https://gizmodo.com/right-wing-influencers-rejoice-trump-admin-gives-a-visa-to-accused-russian-propagandist-2000704325)

1 hour ago — In a post on X on Christmas Day, Chen announced that she and her husband were in Nashville and thanked the State Department's Joe Rittenhouse, a ...Read more

As season one of the Trump administration reboot comes to a close, they are already rooting around deep in the bag of fringe characters. According to a report from The Bulwark, D-list conservative media personality and alleged Russian propagandist Lauren Chen appears to have been granted a visa by Trump’s State Department and is once again back in the United States.

IFrame Content

In a post on X on Christmas Day, Chen announced that she and her husband were in Nashville and thanked the State Department’s Joe Rittenhouse, a senior adviser on consular affairs, for making it happen, saying he helped in “moving mountains to ensure we were able to return in time for the holidays!” Chen also offered appreciation for the “CBP, the new leadership at the FBI, and the administration” for helping her return.

The whole situation is a bit of a “Who’s Who” of “Who is that again?” So, as a refresher: Lauren Chen is a long-time conservative media commentator who made it “big” playing footsie with the alt-right during the first Trump administration while posting as the “Roaming Millennial.” She got attention for interviewing white supremacist Richard Spencer shortly before his involvement in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of a counter-protester and injuries to many others after a neo-Nazi drove their car into a crowd of people.

After a series of unsuccessful independent media ventures, she settled into the right-wing ecosystem, becoming a contributor to Glenn Beck’s The Blaze and Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. But in 2022, she and her husband, Liam Donovan, launched her most notable venture, Tenent Media.

According to an indictment filed by the Justice Department in 2024, Tenet Media received millions of dollars from the Kremlin-run media company RT, which Chen previously contributed to, and funneled that money to conservative commentators in an effort to disseminate pro-Russian content. Recipients of those funds, who supposedly were unaware that they came from Russian interests, included online influencers Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and David Rubin, all of whom allegedly were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Tenent Media for their content.

While the Justice Department’s case against the Russian funders of Tenet Media is still open, per The Bulwark, Chen never really faced legal consequences—though she did have her visa “nuked” by the Biden administration and was, at least for a time, unable to return to the United States.

That appears to have changed thanks to another Trump Show backbencher, Joe Rittenhouse. According to The Daily Beast, Rittenhouse is a former actor turned Trump campaign booster who was rewarded with a role in the administration and has apparently used his position to get Chen back into the country. Rittenhouse appears deeply engaged in the Online Right, based on the fact that he posted a picture of himself in a federal office watching a Sargon of Akkad video. So it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that he’d know and want to help out Chen. The State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo; we’ll update this post when we receive a reply.

Fittingly, Rittenhouse also previously briefed the press on the Trump administration’s decision to revoke the visas of students who participated in the anti-genocide protests that took place on college campuses earlier this year. So if you’re keeping score at home: Protesting a genocide gets you kicked out of this country, but accepting money from the Kremlin and distributing it to create propaganda gets you an expedited invite in. As Rittenhouse says, that’s just what “American First Consular Affairs looks like.”

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AN 12 25

President Donald Trump's administration recently intervened to help a disgraced far-right YouTube commentator get back into the United States — even though her channel was exposed as a Russian media front.

The Bulwark's Will Sommer reported Monday that Canadian citizen Lauren Chen of Tenet Media reportedly reentered the U.S. over the Christmas holiday, even though her work visa was suspended in 2024 amid an FBI investigation into her YouTube channel. Tenet Media's funders had been linked to the Russia-funded RT network, and were accused of funneling approximately $10 million to Chen's company, which also housed prominent pro-Trump pundits like Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin.

Sommer noticed a post to Chen's Instagram account on Christmas Day, where she celebrated that she was able to return to Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, Liam Donovan after securing a visa from Trump's State Department. Chen specifically thanked "Joe Rittenhouse at the State Department," along with "the new leadership at the FBI, and the administration for their help making this possible, and for everything they do to keep America safe."

Rittenhouse responded to Chen's post with one of his own, writing on X that he was "happy to help correct the wrongs of the past administration." Sommer reported that Rittenhouse is apparently a fan of far-right YouTubers, and in August posted a photo of his feet on his desk while watching a video by British YouTuber Sargon of Akkad (whose real name is Carl Benjamin).

In September of 2024, the FBI charged RT employees Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva for conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva sought to "create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging."

"The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing," he added.

Despite the Tenet Media scandal, its personalities have continued to see their platforms flourish. Dave Rubin's YouTube channel has 3.1 million subscribers, Tim Pool has more than 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube and Benny Johnson's channel on Rumble (a platform similar to YouTube popular among the far right) has more than 481,000 followers. Pool maintained at the time that he was tricked into providing content for a media startup and that Russian Vladimir Putin was "a scumbag."

:{:{Click here to read Sommer's full report in The Bulwark.}:

RIGHT-WING MEDIA PERSONALITY Lauren Chen left the United States in July in disgrace. Her Tenet Media YouTube channel, which positioned itself as a sort of MAGA supergroup bringing together such popular commentators as Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, and Dave Rubin, had been exposed in 2024 by the FBI as a Russian media front illicitly taking money from pro-Putin propaganda outlet RT.

The September 2024 indictment from the Southern District of New York targeted Tenet’s FARA-skirting Russian funders, not Chen or her husband, Liam Donovan. But the Canadian couple were clearly described in the indictment as allegedly scheming with RT employees to direct $10 million to Tenet and even create a fictional persona to mislead one pundit about the source of the funding.

In the wake of the indictment, Chen lost her work visa and was forced to leave the country. She also vanished from social media. It seemed unlikely she would return to the United States anytime soon.

But this holiday season, Chen and her husband were back in Nashville, where she lived while running Tenet. She broke the news herself, by announcing on Instagram and X on Christmas Day that she could now return to the United States, and specifically thanking the State Department’s Joe Rittenhouse, a senior adviser on consular affairs and former Trump presidential campaign worker, for his help.

“The biggest thank you to Joe Rittenhouse at the State Department for moving mountains to ensure we were able to return in time for the holidays!” Chen wrote on Instagram.

Chen also thanked Customs and Border Patrol, the FBI, and “the administration” broadly.

“Also the utmost gratitude to CBP, the new leadership at the FBI, and the administration for their help making this possible, and for everything they do to keep America safe,” she wrote.

Rittenhouse himself confirmed the administration’s effort to help Tenet Media’s founders return to America in a post on X, wishing Chen a “merry Christmas.”

“This Christmas I’m so happy to help correct the wrongs of the past administration,” he wrote. “Being able to bring Lauren and her family back for Christmas would not be possible without new Leadership at the Whitehouse, FBI, CBP, and State Department.”

Rittenhouse does appear to be a fan of right-wing media. In August, he posted a picture with his feet up on a desk in what appeared to be a government office building, watching a video from right-wing British YouTuber “Sargon of Akkad.”

THE IDEA THAT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION would assist the foreign founders of an illegally funded media outlet aimed at reaching American audiences with Russian propaganda might seem outlandish. Indeed, it might be the first time the administration has offered assistance to someone from Canada.

But the administration has not shied away from throwing bones to right wing media figures—prioritizing them at White House functions and elevating them at the briefings. As for Russian interests, the president has long been outwardly comfortable associating with them.

The FBI declined to comment. CBP, the White House, and the State Department didn’t respond to requests for comment. Neither did Chen or Rittenhouse.

According to court records, the federal case against Tenet’s funders is still open. But with the Russian operators who allegedly facilitated the money-laundering scheme still at large, the investigation hasn’t gone anywhere in the year since the indictments were filed.

The right-wing commentators who posted on Tenet have maintained their innocence about the nature of the operation, with Johnson, Rubin, and Pool all claiming that they were “victims” of Chen’s company—duped, as it were, by the Russian government into taking tens of thousands of dollars for making a single YouTube video.

By and large, they’ve faced minimal professional repercussions. In fact, their influence and their audiences are far larger now than when Tenet was exposed. The one person who did face some fallout was Chen, whose visa situation with the American government was dire. This past September, she complained that the Biden administration had “nuked my visa” after Tenet’s funding was exposed. In a July statement that marked her return to social media, Chen complained that she couldn’t return to the United States.

“Because my American visa was contingent upon our company, we had no choice but to leave our home and children’s place of birth,” she wrote. “We are doing everything in our power to get a new visa and return home.”

The Trump administration’s intervention on Chen’s behalf comes as it has moved to dramatically restrict visa rules more broadly—even denying visas to activists opposed to disinformation. Rittenhouse himself has briefed the media on the administration’s student-visa revocations.

From my point of view, Trump’s help for Chen and her husband also hurts the realinjured parties: Johnson, Rubin, and Pool. After all, with Chen and her husband on the loose in America once again, is any pro-Trump media star safe from being targeted with the next Tenet-like con?

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2x?

What Right-Wing Influencers Actually Said in Those Tenet Media Videos | WIRED

Sep 6, 2024

What Right-Wing Influencers Actually Said in Those Tenet Media Videos

A WIRED analysis shows that right-wing stars like Tim Pool and Benny Johnson focused on topics like Elon Musk and supposed racism toward white people in hundreds of videos allegedly paid for by Russia. paywall

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new rep 9 24

Another burgeoning conservative outlet has been tied to Russia, with former advisers to Donald Trump coordinating directly with contributors for Kremlin state media.

Former Trump policy aide George Papadopoulos and his wife, Simona Mangiante, have become involved with Intelligencer, a growing conservative site heavily critical of the war in Ukraine (the right-wing site has no apparent connection with New York magazine’s Intelligencer). Nearly half of the company’s board members are former aides, surrogates, or fake electors for Trump’s previous campaigns, *The Guardian* reported Thursday.

The site’s financial backing did not indicate that it had received funds directly from the Kremlin. Instead, Intelligencer began as a subsidiary of a right-wing radio station in Australia that covers a host of conservative U.S. issues, including climate change denial and Covid-19 conspiracies, until George Eliason, an American journalist with experience in Ukraine, took over the website. In recent months, Intelligencer’s conspiracy-laden articles have been shared by the likes of Alex Jones and former Trump aide Roger Stone.

“Intelligencer appears to be one of several [Russia-friendly] operations targeting the upcoming U.S. elections, leveraging a network of far-right figures and disinformation tactics,” Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told The Guardian.

Intelligencer is far from the only conservative site that’s been busted in a recent government crackdown ahead of the November election. Earlier this month, another pro-Trump media group—Tenet Media—folded under the pressure of a Justice Department investigation that found the company had been backed to the tune of millions of dollars from Russian state-controlled media.

The DOJ indictment accused Tenet and its founders of receiving nearly $10 million from employees of Russia Today as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

The Russian funds paid for videos by popular far-right personalities, including podcaster Tim Pool and Lauren Southern. Pool described himself as a “victim” in the Tenet scandal.

The switch to utilizing more overt methods to sway American voters, including relying on conservative influencers, is a decidedly new strategy for Russian propaganda outfits.

“Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has increasingly been forced to rely on networks of proxies and influencers whose conspiracist ‘brand’ generates income and audiences through social media monetization and some of whom Russia has now been caught covertly subsidizing,” Emma Briant, an associate professor of news and political communication at Monash University in Australia, told The Guardian.

But while conservative media tried to wash its hands of the Tenet scandal, the Trump campaign did not, with Trump campaign senior adviser Alina Habba chalking the indictment up to another “hoax.”

“A $10 million payment to some podcasters who had no idea from some ties allegedly to Russia is now going to make a spin on Russia backing Trump,” Habba told Fox News last week.

mma

Rumble repeatedly promoted as “editor picks” content from Tenet Media, a channel allegedly funded by the Russian government

Rumble’s source code calls its “editor picks” section the “absolute real best” of the platform

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published 09/09/24

Rumble — an extreme right-wing video-sharing platform that has boasted Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance as an investor — has promoted multiple videos in its “editor picks“ section from Tenet Media, a right-wing media operation allegedly funded by the Russian government to spread propaganda.

On September 4, a federal indictment was unsealed that alleges “a Tennessee-based online content creation company" received “nearly $10 million from employees of Russia Today (RT), a Russian state-backed media company.” Reporting has subsequently identified the content creation company as Tenet Media, which employed prominent MAGA influencers. Attorney General Merrick Garland said it was part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.” The indictment also alleges that the founders of Tenet Media, right-wing influencer Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan, were aware of their funding source and that RT staff was “involved in the firm’s editorial efforts.”

YouTube removed Tenet Media and Chen’s channels following the indictment, saying the action was part of the platform’s “ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations.” Tenet Media also reportedly shut down.

As of publication of this article, Tenet Media and its content are still available on Rumble.

A Media Matters review also found that Rumble promoted Tenet Media multiple times in recent months, featuring videos from the company’s channel in its “editor picks” section. In its source code, the platform describes its “editor picks” section as “the absolute real best” of Rumble.

Rumble Tenet editor pick1

CitationScreenshot of Rumble's "editor picks" section taken on May 21, 2024

Rumble Tenet editor pick2

CitationScreenshot of Rumble's "editor picks" section taken on July 8, 2024

Rumble Tenet editor pick3

CitationScreenshot of Rumble's "editor picks" section taken on September 6, 2024

Additionally, a Google search of the “editor picks” section for Tenet Media turned up multiple results, suggesting other videos from the outlet had been featured as “editor picks.”

Google Rumble Tenet editor picks

Rumble has repeatedly promoted conspiracy theory and extremist content in its “editor picks” section.

The Latest

Rumble repeatedly promoted as “editor picks” content from Tenet Media, a channel allegedly funded by the Russian government

09/09/24 4:15 PM EDT

Tea Party Patriots leader claims to be partnering with Charlie Kirk in door knocking effort

09/09/24 1:39 PM EDT

Sunday morning political talk shows failed to highlight dangerous Trump comments from over the weekend

09/09/24 1:19 PM EDT

Charlie Kirk amplifies since-debunked social media rumor about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio

09/09/24 12:51 PM EDT

MSNBC: Fact-checking Trump and his extremism during debate is an “essential task on the part of moderators”

09/09/24 11:56 AM EDT

Pagination

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In This Article

Rumble

Rumble tag image

Rumble's self-proclaimed “absolute real best” content promotes conspiracy theories

03/19/24 12:07 PM EDT

Rumble is promoting Trump “meme team” ally Brenden Dilley on its “editor picks” and front page

08/22/24 11:45 AM EDT

QAnon supporters find a home on Rumble, dominating the platform's leaderboard of most-liked daily videos

05/04/23 1:18 PM EDT

Sept. 6, 2024, 10:24

By Matt Gertz, senior fellow for Media Matters for America

Prominent right-wing influencers Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and Tim Pool have huge followings on YouTube and a fondness for the Trumpist talking point that allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election on the former president’s behalf are a “hoax.” That’s not all they have in common: They also reportedly enjoyed lucrative deals with a content creation company that was a front for Russian propagandists.

The Justice Department indicted two employees of the Russian propaganda outlet RT on Wednesday, charging them with laundering almost $10 million through foreign shell companies and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The DOJ alleges this was done “to covertly fund and direct” a media company that produced videos whose content and subject matter were “often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests.”

The Tenet Media saga demonstrates once again that Russian election interference is not, as these commentators and their allies have insisted, a “hoax.”

The company’s description matches that of Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based firm co-founded by Lauren Chen, a creator for Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV (which fired Chen on Thursday) and a contributor to Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. Tenet Media publishes content by Rubin, Johnson, Pool and other less-prominent influencers. According to the indictment, the production companies of three unnamed commentators were paid $8.7 million through the scheme.

The indictment states two of the commentators were deceived about the source of the funding; the trio all described themselves as unwitting “victims” of the operation in separate statements on social media. But the Tenet Media saga demonstrates once again that Russian election interference is not, as these commentators and their allies have insisted, a “hoax.” It is a fact, a deliberate and ongoing operation by the Kremlin to sway U.S. politics. And the Trumpist right’s yearslong quest to rebut that reality have ended up ensuring that their entire information ecosystem is honeycombed with Russian propaganda.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 final report conclusively documented the Russian government’s systematic effort to influence the 2016 presidential election in order to help Trump and the many ways Trump’s associates participated in that endeavor. This was an inconvenient finding for Trump and his political and media allies, who had spent years fabricating a complex alternate reality in which claims of Russian election interference or corrupt ties between Russia and Trump and his associates were “deep state” lies. They responded by falsely claiming Mueller’s report had found “no collusion” between Trump and Russia, and used that lie to brand the entirety of the probe as a “hoax.”

0 seconds of 11 minutes, 55 secondsVolume 90%

‘You're being manipulated': Right-wing media company funded by Russia pushed Trump-style propaganda

11:55

That inability to forthrightly reject Russian efforts to aid their party’s standard bearer set the stage for Russian propaganda efforts receiving saturation coverage in the right-wing ecosystem.

No one on the right has done more to push pro-Russia talking points than former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a longtime defender of Russian president Vladimir Putin and opponent of U.S. support for Ukraine. Russian propaganda channels sought to gin up Western support for its 2022 invasion by highlighting Carlson’s nightly screeds against U.S. aid to Ukraine, and in turn served as a source for Carlson’s program. A Russian state TV host even suggested on-air that Carlson take a job at his network after Fox dropped him the following year.

Carlson didn’t go that far — but he did take a jaunt to Moscow the following year for a largely friendly interview with Putin. Carlson’s visit received fawning coverage from Russian propaganda channels; the host in turn produced a pathetic video in which he claimed his visit to a local grocery store had “radicalize[d]” him against America’s political leaders. (Carlson’s Moscow market video was so unsubtle that when one of the indicted RT employees suggested posting it on Tenet’s Instagram channel, a Tenet producer initially recoiled, fearing that the video “feels like overt shilling.”)

The revelation that some of their own got pulled into a Russian intelligence operation isn’t leading to self-reflection on the MAGA right.

But Russia-friendly narratives about the country’s invasion of Ukraine ultimately spread far beyond Carlson. It became widely accepted orthodoxy on the MAGA right that sending military aid to Ukraine is a waste of money, that the United States is responsible for Russia’s invasion, and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the real villain of the conflict. As Pool put it, “Ukraine is the enemy of this country!” All of this brings Putin closer to one of his top objectives, the end of U.S. support for Ukraine.

Russian interests and Kremlin-connected sources also fueled the right’s obsession with Hunter Biden’s business interests and the absurd related allegation that Joe Biden accepted a bribe from a Ukrainian oligarch — both of which right-wing media and politicians treated as major stories, with House Republicans making it the heart of their impeachment case against the president..

While the U.S. right has been peddling Russian talking points for years, commentators unwittingly receiving payments from that country does seem to be a new development. But the revelation that some of their own got pulled into a Russian intelligence operation isn’t leading to self-reflection on the MAGA right. There’s a palpable lack of concern about the notion that Russian propagandists want to encourage the divisive rhetoric prevalent on the pro-Trump right because they feel it weakens the United States and bolsters Russian interests.

'Show a little skepticism': Russian propaganda scheme exposed; highlights need for savvy electorate

Instead, as they did with revelations of Russian interference in 2016 and the dissolution of their impeachment case earlier this year, they’ve moved directly to grievance and conspiracy theories.

In the hours after the indictment dropped Wednesday, Fox hosts and chyrons claimed that the Justice Department is engaged in “dirty tricks” intended to help Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign, and may be “laying the ground for more censorship.” Other right-wing commentators suggested that the indictment may be “a “psyop within a psyop” or perhaps linked to “Trump say[ing] he is going to declass the Epstein client list.”

For Charlie Kirk, the close Trump associate and streamer who had Tenet Media co-founder Lauren Chen as a TPUSA contributor, the big takeaway was that “the regime is ramping up its fear campaign ahead of November.”

All of this ensures that the right-wing information space will remain a rich breeding ground for Russian propaganda as Moscow tries to return Trump to the White House.

Matt Gertz

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re tenet media expose

Laura Ingraham: “Same old claims of election interference, all of it a pretext to get back into the censorship game”

09/06/24 mma

September 6, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): The deep state's boarded the Russia Express as well, talk about déjà vu. Same old claims of election interference, all of it a pretext to get back into the censorship game.

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an 9 24

Donald Trump’s latest attack on American rule of law and the U.S. Dept. of Justice is facing condemnation. The GOP presidential nominee and convicted felon awaiting sentencing, while speaking at a courthouse press conference on his efforts to appeal a $5 million judgment in a New York sexual abuse and defamation civil case, called the DOJ’s bombshell indictments in the Kremlin cash and Russian disinformation case a “scam.”

“It’s always the same,” observed foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf. “Defend Putin. Defend Russia. Defend corruption. Accuse those who are enforcing the law of being engaged in a scam. Why does he sound this way? Because he is a traitor and a criminal.”

Trump told reporters Friday, “This is a long and complicated web and story, but it all goes back to the DOJ and Kamala and sleepy Joe and all the rest of them.”

“We have a whole rigged election system,” he declared, as he often does, promoting his “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen while appearing to be paving the ground for the same response should he lose in November.

“Nobody’s ever seen anything like what’s happening now. I understand yesterday, they’re bringing up Russia, Russia, Russia again, that they’ve done for years. Never found anything,” Trump falsely claimed. “But they should be looking at China, China, China, Iran, Iran, Iran, lots of other places.”

“I haven’t spoken to anybody from Russia in years. They know that, but it’s a scam,” he claimed. “But, it all goes back to the DOJ because we had a trial today. It’s an appeal of a ridiculous –.”

Trump was referring to this week’s indictments that reveal a U.S. media outlet that platformed several far-right pro-Trump influencers was funded with millions of dollars from Russia in a scheme to help Trump.

“The allegations,” NBC News reported on the indictments, “came as part of a wide-ranging move by the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury to target what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election.” In a separate report NBC News calls the influencers, “paid messengers for Russian propaganda.”

The Atlantic’s David Frum, a former White House speechwriter for Republican President George W. Bush, responded to Trump’s remarks, saying: “The only topic on which Trump never flip flops.”

The liberal super PAC American Bridge responded to Trump’s comments by pointing to an Associated Press article and writing: “YESTERDAY Trump’s former senior campaign aide was charged for accepting $1 million to spew Kremlin talking points.”

Podcaster Fred Wellman remarked: “I’m a bit of a news hound and I didn’t see anyone saying that Trump had been talking to Russia yesterday. He is incapable of not blurting out confessions.”

Watch Trump’s remarks below or at this link.

===

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van sun blk lace top pix hot

A U.S. online content creation company that features several prominent right-wing influencers — including one from B.C. — was heavily financed by a Russian state-controlled media outlet as part of a “secret influence campaign” to sow discord and chaos, prosecutors allege.

The U.S. Justice Department does not allege any wrongdoing by the influencers, noting that some of them were given false information about the source of the company’s funding.

An indictment filed by U.S. federal prosecutors in New York this week charged Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afansyeva, both staffers at Russian state-backed news site RT, formerly known as Russia Today, with conspiracy to violate America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

It is alleged that the Russians funnelled $10 million to covertly finance a Tennessee-based online content creation company as part of a “scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.”

While the indictment does not directly identify the company, it says the company describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” That is the description used by Tenet Media. Its stable of half a dozen conservative influencers have been featured in thousands of videos on multiple social media platforms, including YouTube, X, and Instagram.

Those influencers include Surrey native Lauren Southern. In the nine months leading up to July 31 of this year, Southern created 94 videos for the network’s social media channels. In one of her videos, the 29-year-old describes the 2021 discovery of suspected unmarked graves at a former Kamloops residential school as a “hoax”.

Two months ago, Southern created a video titled “My home town’s been destroyed” that blamed mass immigration from “countries like India” for ruining the city of Surrey. “It’s not looking like Canada,” she said.

In 2015, Southern unsuccessfully ran in the federal election as a Libertarian candidate in the Langley-Aldergrove riding.

Southern did not respond to a request for comment from Postmedia.

Some of Tenet’s other political commentators include Americans Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, each of whom has an online following in the millions.

As of Thursday, Rubin, Johnson and Pool released statements saying they were unaware of the alleged Russian influence.

“We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme,” Pool said on X.

The indictment alleges the network’s coverage “contain(ed) commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics … consistent with the government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”

“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Wednesday.

Tenet Media emerged following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine when Russian news organizations were no longer able to operate in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the U.K. as a result of sanctions.

According to the indictment, following a terrorist attack at a music venue in Moscow in March of this year, one of the accused Russian operatives, posing as an editor, encouraged one of the founders of the U.S. content creation company to blame Ukraine and the U.S.

“I think we can focus on the Ukraine/U.S. angle,” Afanasyeva allegedly wrote in a message. “The mainstream media spread fake news that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, yet ISIS itself never made such statements. All terrorists are now detained while they were heading to the border with Ukraine which makes it even more suspicious why they would want to go to Ukraine to hide.”

At least one content creator for the U.S. company was paid $400,000 a month for four videos a week, plus a $100,000 signing bonus and an additional performance bonus, the indictment states.

*With files from The Associated Press

sgrochowski@postmedia.com

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forbes

hese Right-Wing Pundits Were Allegedly Funded By Russia—What To Know About DOJ Indictment

Siladitya Ray

Forbes Staff

Siladitya Ray is a New Delhi-based Forbes news team reporter.

Sep 5, 2024,08:17am EDT

Updated Sep 5, 2024, 09:03am EDT

Topline The Justice Department filed an indictment Wednesday, accusing the Kremlin of pouring millions into a media company linked to prominent online right-wing commentators as part of an influence operation pushing pro-Russia propaganda and disinformation on social media.

RUSSIA-POLITICS-VOTE

The Kremlin allegedly funneled $10 million into a media company linked to several popular right-wing ... [+]AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The DOJ’s indictment does not name the “Tennessee-based online content creation company” that received the Russian funding, but the description matches Tenet Media, which describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.”

Tenet’s website lists six prominent right-wing social media personalities—Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, Taylor Hansen and Matt Christiansen—as part of its talent roster.

The DOJ’s indictment alleges two Russian state media employees covertly poured $10 million into the company to publish English-language videos on various social media platforms spouting views that are “often consistent with the Government of Russia's interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”

Tenet’s YouTube channel, which has more than 315,000 subscribers, features segments from Pool, Johnson and Christiansen’s online shows mostly focussing on conservative political and culture war issues.

The DOJ’s indictment doesn’t accuse the right-wing influencers—which it identifies only as Commentator-1 and Commentator-2—of any wrongdoing and instead suggests they were deceived by the company’s two founders and the Russian state media operatives.

When the influencers asked about the company’s funding source, the founders allegedly lied and told them they were sponsored by a private investor named “Eduard Grigoriann”—a fictional persona, according to the indictment.

How Have The Influencers Reacted?

:{Many of the influencers listed in Tenet’s roster have millions of followers on social media and video-sharing platforms like X and YouTube. While the DOJ’s indictment doesn’t name any of them, it notes that Commentator-1 and Commentators had over 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers, respectively. Rubin’s channel has 2.45 million subscribers on YouTube, while Pool’s channel has 1.37 million.

:{ In a post on X, Pool said his podcast “The Culture War” was only “licensed by Tenet Media” for broadcast on its YouTube channel and he “never produced any content” for Tenet.:{ “Should these allegations prove true}:, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims…Putin is a scumbag,” Pool added.

Johnson—who has 2.39 million subscribers on YouTube—also commented on the indictment on X, saying his lawyers had “negotiated a standard, arms length deal” with a media startup last year “which was later terminated.” He then added: “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.”}:}:

Key Background

Investigations by U.S. intelligence agencies, lawmakers and special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia conducted an expansive campaign—including online disinformation and hacking—to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. In 2018, a grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for hacking into Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The indictment was part of Mueller’s investigation, which also found that Russia-linked actors had carried out an extensive social media campaign using fake accounts to help former President Donald Trump win in 2016. A Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on the matter also came to a similar conclusion in 2020.

Big Number

7.16 million. That’s the cumulative YouTube subscriber count of all six influencers listed on Tenet’s talent roster.

Crucial Quote

While announcing the indictment, Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”

Tangent

In a separate announcement on Wednesday, the DOJ said it seized 32 internet domains that were being used to carry out “Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as ‘Doppelganger’.” The websites “covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine” and influence voters in U.S. and foreign elections “including the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election.” The Treasury Department sanctioned Russian non-profit Autonomous Non-Profit Organization (ANO) Dialog and state media outlet RT (formerly known as Russia Today) for allegedly conducting a disinformation campaign.

Is This Russian Election Interference Scheme Paying a Pro-Trump Firm?

The Department of Justice alleges that Russian media employees funded a U.S. company to push Russian propaganda.

IFrame Content

Russian agents have allegedly been spreading disinformation through a right-wing U.S. media company that houses a few popular MAGA commentators.

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment Wednesday against two Russia Today employees, Elena Afanasyeva and Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, alleging that the two had illegally acted as foreign agents and funneled roughly $10 million into a U.S. media company to produce propaganda that aligned with the Russian government’s interests.

“While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine,” the indictment said.

The Tennessee-based media company has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, according to the indictment. The U.S. company failed to disclose to its viewers that it was being funded and directed by R.T., which has been banned in the U.K., EU, and Canada. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in November 2022, R.T. suspended its activities in the United States, as well.

The indictment doesn’t say the name of the U.S. media company that is responsible for producing Russian propaganda—but it wasn’t that hard to figure out. The indictment says the company is registered in Tennessee and describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.”

As Aric Toler and Alan Feuer of The New York Times pointed out on X, there is only one company that fits this description: Tenet Media, a hub of six pro-Trump far-right commentators, including Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson.

Earlier this summer, Pool attacked Kamala Harris by calling her a “Communazi Despot come to put conservatives in concentration camps.” The attack was so over the top that it even drew a reply from white nationalist Richard Spencer, who wondered, “A bit much?”

In addition to MAGA acolytes, it looks like the group members were also—likely unwittingly—Russian propagandists. Maybe they’ll add that to their résumés as they search for new jobs?

The indictment alleges that Afanasyeva and Kalashnikov worked together to “deceive” two of the company’s commentators “who respectively have over 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers.” The commentators mentioned are likely to be Rubin and Pool, respectively, based on their follower counts.

The indictment also lists two “founders” who were made to act as foreign agents, though their names are not listed in the indictment. To hide where the money was coming from, the founders allegedly invented a private investor named Eduard Grigoriann who was sponsoring their work.*

Tenet Media is owned by conservative host Lauren Chen, a contributor to Turning Point USA, which is helping Donald Trump out with his presidential campaign, and her husband Liam Donovan.

According to the indictment, Afanasyeva pushed for content to be covered from an angle that was beneficial to Russia. After a bombing in Moscow in March, for which ISIS admitted responsibility, Afanasyeva directed one of the Tenet founders to have a commentator to “focus on the Ukraine/U.S. angle” and claim that “mainstream media spread fake news that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack yet ISIS itself never made such statements” and saying it was “suspicious” that the attackers had fled toward the Ukrainian border.

In February, Afanasyeva shared a video of “a well-known U.S. political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia” to be posted to the site. One producer remarked in the Discord chat that “it just feels like overt shilling” but, after urging from one of the founders, did it anyway.

In June, one of the founders gave Afanasyeva and Kalashnikov permission to post their own content directly onto the company’s channels, according to the indictment.

Afanasyeva and Kalashnikov have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

* *This story originally misstated who invented the private investor.

More about Trump and Russia:

Former Trump Staffer Reveals How Putin Played Him Like a Puppet

===

MAGA world's reaction to Russian election interference indictment: Conspiracy theories and attacks on law enforcement agencies | Media Matters for America

no vid pix lnx

MAGA world's reaction to Russian election interference indictment: Conspiracy theories and attacks on law enforcement agencies

Every reaction but introspection about why the Kremlin would want to surreptitiously fund MAGA personalities

Written by Jane Lee & Jason Campbell

Research contributions from Sophie Lawton & Jack Wheatley

:{Published 09/05/24 am

Right-wing media figures are responding to news that several prominent MAGA influencers were unwittingly working on behalf of Russia by spouting absurd conspiracy theories and attacking law enforcement officials who uncovered the apparent scheme.

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday a multi-department effort to target Russian-backed attempts to interfere with the 2024 U.S. presidential election, including criminal charges against two Russian nationals, sanctions against 10 other individuals and entities, and the seizure of 32 internet domains.

A released indictment details how two RT employees allegedly financed a U.S.-based media company, which reports have subsequently identified as Tenet Media, a right-wing media operation that has employed prominent MAGA influencers including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern. MAGA personality Lauren Chen and her husband have been identified as the founders of the company. Only the two RT employees were charged in the indictment.

As CNN reported:

At Russian President Vladimir Putin’s direction, three Russian companies used fake profiles to promote false narratives on social media, US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. Internal documents produced by one of those Russian companies show one of the goals of the propaganda effort was to boost the candidacy of Donald Trump or whoever emerged as the Republican nominee for president, according to an FBI affidavit.

Separately, two employees of RT, the Russian state media network, were indicted in a US court for allegedly being part of a scheme that funneled nearly $10 million to set up and direct a Tennessee-based front company to produce online content aimed at sowing divisions among Americans, according to the Justice Department. The scheme targeted millions of American news consumers with what Attorney General Merrick Garland described as “hidden Russian government messaging.”

WIRED also reported:

A Tennessee-based media network that produces shows for high-profile right-wing influencers such as Benny Johnson and Tim Pool was largely funded by Russian state-backed news network RT, according to a federal indictment against two RT employees that the US Department of Justice unsealed on Wednesday. The DOJ claims the US company—which WIRED, along with other news outlets, was able to identify as Tenet Media but goes unnamed in the indictment—posted hundreds of videos on social media that pushed Kremlin-approved talking points.

With the tagline “Fearless voices live here,” Tenet Media’s network includes online creators known for their right-wing politics, including Johnson, Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern. In addition to the followings of the network’s individual creators, which collectively number in the millions, Tenet Media itself boasts more than 315,000 followers on YouTube and thousands more across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok.

Johnson, Pool, Rubin, and Southern did not immediately respond to requests for comment; none are accused of wrongdoing.

Fox News, Newsmax, and other MAGA media personalities reacted to the news of Russian attempts to influence the 2024 election by attacking law enforcement agencies, dismissing the gravity of the interference attempts, and claiming that the effort was an attempt by the Justice Department to steal or influence the election in Vice President Kamala Harris’ favor.

Fox News

Special Report

Fox News' Mollie Hemingway attacked American law enforcement: “Our Department of Justice and FBI are the least credible people to talk about this." [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier

The Ingraham Angle

Laura Ingraham claimed that the DOJ may be “laying the ground for more censorship” while guest Vivek Ramaswamy claimed that the real threat is from the “administrative state.” Ingraham agreed that the threat is from the “enemy within.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

Jesse Watters Primetime

Jesse Watters mocked concerns of Russian interference: “This show tonight has all the earmarks of Russian propaganda.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

Jesse Watters reacted to the Russian election interference indictment by calling it “dirty tricks” from the Department of Justice. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

Watters: “So people here took money, they didn't know where the money was coming from, and it didn't change the way they talked on the internet.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

Newsmax

Rob Schmitt Tonight

Newsmax's Rob Schmitt said that Attorney General Merrick Garland is “resurrecting” the Russian interference narrative. [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight

Newsmax guest says the Department of Justice is trying to create a Russian “boogeyman” where there isn't one. [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight

Prime News

Newsmax host: “The left is blaming Russia for their unpopular policies.” [Newsmax, Prime News, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Prime News

Greg Kelly Reports

Newsmax's Greg Kelly: “Russian disinformation is basically code for stories Democrats don't like.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports

Chris Plante: The Right Squad

Newsmax host Chris Plante claimed that Russia prefers Democrats in power: “This is what Democrats do when they're losing. They panic. ... Their playbook has one thing when all else fails: Blame Russia. The only problem is, you know, Russia prefers Democrats, as you might expect, to be in charge in the United States of America. Not Trump. They don't want President Trump in charge. In fact, Vlad the Impaler Putin admitted that earlier this year.” [Newsmax, Chris Plante: The Right Squad, 9/4/24]

:{Video

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024, edition of Newsmax's Chris Plante: The Right Squad

MAGA personalities

Charlie Kirk

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk posted in response to the DOJ election threats task force: “The regime is ramping up its fear campaign ahead of November” and in a separate post, “It's 2016 all over again.” [Twitter/X, 9/4/24, 9/4/24]

TimCast

Timcast co-host Ian Crossland suggested that the situation may be a “psyop within a psyop.” [YouTube, Timcast, 9/4/24]

:{Video:

CitationFrom the September 4, 2024 edition of Timcast IRL

Jack Posobiec

MAGA personality Jack Posobiec wrote, “Crazy how all the Russia collusion stuff reappears the day after Trump says he is going to declass the Epstein client list… Really makes you think.” [Twitter/X, 9/4/24]

Dan Bongino

Right-wing radio host Dan Bongino wrote, “Trust absolutely NOTHING emanating from the DOJ or FBI that even remotely whiffs of politics.” He added, “Especially before an election, where they have a deep and troubled history of election interference in defense of their democrat allies.” [Twitter/X, 9/4/24]

Rogan O'Handley

MAGA commentator Rogan O'Handley, also known as DC Draino, wrote a long post claiming the Justice Department is weaponized against MAGA, writing, “Today’s DOJ indictment mentioning prominent MAGA Youtubers is just a preview of what the weaponized Kamala regime will do to every prominent voice in the Patriot movement.” He added, “The regime knows it’s being rejected by the American people and is desperately lashing out" and “No more distractions, no more purity tests for Trump, no more BS - we ALL have to fight like hell to get him elected or most of us are going to end up targeted by the Deep State.” [Twitter/X, 9/4/24]

RedState

Right-wing news site RedState published an article titled “Kamala’s Campaign Is Flailing So Badly the DOJ Just Tried to Toss Her a ‘Russia Collusion’ Lifeline” in which they call the indictment another “fake Russia meddling hoax.” [RedState, 9/5/24]

===

an 9 24

on Wednesday, August 4, arch-conservative former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) announced that she will be "voting for Kamala Harris" for president, attacking GOP nominee Donald Trump as a "danger" to the Constitution. Cheney has been vehemently critical of Trump and the MAGA movement's views on foreign policy and the fondness that many MAGA Republicans have expressed for Russian President Vladimir Putin — and Cheney's Harris endorsement was a major news story when the Daily Beast reported that a Tennessee-based pro-Trump media company, Tenet Media, has "been accused of receiving millions of dollars from two employees of Russian state-backed media company Russia Today (RT) in order to influence American viewers."

The Daily Beast's Owen Levine reports, "According to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, the Russian employees created a $10 million scheme 'to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.' While described as 'U.S. Company 1' in an unsealed indictment Wednesday, clues suggest that it is Tenet Media, which has been named in various reports as the firm in question. The indictment describes how Company-1's website describes itself as a 'network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.' It employs six commentators as its 'talent.'"

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, a Never Trump conservative, had a lot to say about the Beast's reporting on Thursday morning, September 5. The former GOP congressman slammed MAGA Republicans who are "knowingly or unknowingly promoting Russian propaganda."

Scarborough told viewers, "It's just cynicism…. (They are) always apologizing for Russian, always apologizing for Putin."

Journalist Ken Dilanian, who specializes in national security matters for NBC News and MSNBC, told Scarborough that the Tenet story and Garland's allegations are a disturbing example of the Kremlin trying to influence U.S. politics.

There have been plenty of reactions on X, formerly Twitter, as well.

Legal expert and former federal prosecutor Richard Signorelli tweeted the Beast's report, commenting, "Trump is Putin's shill and rescuer if he wins. Does everyone understand what this election is all about?"

HuffPost journalist Yashar Ali noted, "The US Department of Justice alleges that Tenet Media, which has Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Dave Rubin on its roster, received $10 million from the Russian government to publish content as part of a Russian influence operation. Tenet is owned and controlled by Lauren Chen, who is affiliated with Turning Point USA, and her husband Liam Donovan."

Law professor Scott Bassett tweeted, "Can MAGA explain why they hate America so much that they will do Putin's bidding?"

Physics professor Alex Spahn posted, "Evidence from the DOJ includes these 'campaign topics' they pushed. Notice these are essentially that everything MAGA is about. Russia paying (Tenet) Media is just scratching the surface of a long-running effort to undermine/destabilize US politics."

*Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).

===

Lauren Chen is a conservative millennial YouTuber, blogger, political commentator, and TV host. Born in Quebec, Canada, and raised in Hong Kong, Lauren earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a Minor in Middle-Eastern Studies and Arabic. She has starred in popular conservative shows including, Pseudo-Intellectual on Blaze TV and Roaming Millennial: Uncensored on CRTV. Lauren currently stars on her own YouTube channel, Lauren Chen, which has garnered over half a million subscribers and amassed almost 80,000,000 views. She has also appeared on Fox News, One America News, Newsmax, The Daily Wire, Rebel Media, and PragerU.

---

no twt

What to know about Tenet Media, Tennessee company linked to Russian propagandists

Evan Mealins}:

Nashville Tennessean

An indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges that a Russian state-controlled media outlet financed a Tennessee company. The indicitment doesn't name the company, but a description of the firm matches the online content creation company Tenet Media. The indictment accuses two Russian nationals, employed by Kremlin-operated media outlet Russia Today, of funneling nearly $10 million to covertly fund and direct the Tennessee company.

Here's what we know about Tenet Media and its possible connection with the accusations laid out in the indictment.

What is Tenet Media?

On its website, Tenet Media describes itself as "a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues." That's also how the company referenced in the indictment characterizes itself.

Tenet Media creates and posts conservative content on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Rumble and X, formerly known as Twitter. The company's commentators, identified on its website as its "talent," include well-known names from conservative media. They are Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Lauren Southern, Dave Rubin, Tayler Hansen and Matt Christiansen.

Indictment:Russian propagandists used Tennessee content company to push disinformation

Who started Tenet Media?

It appears Tenet Media was created by Lauren Chen, a Canadian-born YouTuber and blogger, and a man named Liam Donovan, who appears to be her husband, based on information from several sources. Donovan identifies himself as the president of Tenet Media in his bio on X and as Chen's husband in his bio on Instagram.

Chen, a well-known name in conservative media, formerly posted to YouTube under the name Roaming Millennial. Canadian business records show Roaming Millennial Incorporated was registered to Liam Donovan and Lauren Yu Sum Tam, likely the social media personality's legal name.

Business records from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s website show Roaming USA Corp, which registered its assumed name “TENET Media” in May 2023, was incorporated in Tennessee on Jan. 19, 2022. Tennessee business records identify Liam Donovan as the company’s registered agent. Lauren Tam was previously listed in records.

There is not a phone number listed for Tenet Media in the Secretary of State's business records or on the company's website. No phone number was listed for either Tam or Donovan in an online database accessed by The Tennessean.

Tenet Media’s "principal office" is at a Green Hills office building in Nashville, state business records show. Other addresses previously associated with Tenet Media are a two-story, four-bedroom home in Brentwood and a building on Confederate Drive in Franklin.

'Bigger threat':Feds accuse Russia's RT network in $10 million election misinformation plot

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (center) accompanied by, from left, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division Matt Olsen takes a question from a reporter during an Election Threats Task Force meeting at the Justice Department on Sept. 4, 2024 in Washington, D.C.

Is Tenet Media named in the indictment alleging Russian influence?

No. But there are several descriptions of the company in the indictment that match Tenet Media.

The indictment states the company was run in Tennessee and described itself on its website as "a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues." Tennessee-based company Tenet Media has the same message on its homepage.

Tenet Media was incorporated the day the unnamed Tennessee company in the indictment was incorporated.

The indictment says the unnamed Tennessee company has two founders, one of which described the Tennessee company as a subsidiary of a founder's Canadian company. Lauren Tam, likely Chen's legal name, is listed in business records for both Roaming Millennial in Canada and Roaming USA Corp, Tenet Media's official name.

What does the indictment say?

The indictment accuses two Russian nationals who worked for Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based online content creation company to publish English-language videos on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.

The Tennessee company is part of an "entire empire of covert projects" created to "shape public opinion in ‘Western audiences,’” according to the indictment. Many of the videos contained commentary on events and issues like immigration, inflation, and domestic and foreign policy in the United States, according to the indictment.

The two Russian suspects accused of funneling the money to the company are Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, also known as Lena. They were both at large. They are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carry a five-year and 20-year sentence, respectively, if convicted.

What is Russia Today?

Russia Today is a media outlet that is operated by the Russian government. The indictment unsealed Wednesday states that "for nearly two decades, (Russia Today) has promoted the objectives of the Government of Russia by publishing disinformation and propaganda, leveraging its international network to amplify the Government of Russia's message to foreign audiences, and using its guise as a conventional media outlet to lend credibility to that message."

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia Today was forced to cease formal operations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union, the federal indictment states.

"But as RT itself has boasted, despite its post-March 2022 bans on broadcasting and lack of formal distribution channels in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, the Government of Russia continues to use RT to direct disinformation and propaganda at Western audiences," according to the indictment.

In response to the allegations in the indictment unsealed Wednesday, Russia Today responded with ridicule: "Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT's interference in the U.S. elections," the media outlet told Reuters.

What has Tenet Media and its commentators said in response?

Tenet Media did not respond to a message The Tennessean sent it seeking comment through a comment box online.

However, several Tenet Media commentators released statements on social media stating that they had full editorial control over the content they created that was posted to Tenet Media. Tim Pool said that he and the other personalities and commentators on Tenet Media "were deceived and are victims."

More:Project 2025 ex-chief appeared on media channel DOJ called 'covert project' linked to Russia

The indictment states that the Tennessee company's two founders masked the company's true source of funding when contracting with two commentators, falsely stating its funding came from a private investor named "Eduard Grigoriann," a fictional persona.

"A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor. Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated," Benny Johnson wrote in a post on X. "We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme."

Matt Christiansen ended his post on X by writing, "Every word is from me and me alone."

Johnson and Pool — in a since deleted post — incorrectly stated that the indictment was leaked. It was not. A federal judge unsealed the indictment Wednesday. Pool made a new post Wednesday evening.

Kirsten Fiscus contributed.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

ref

...ith podcaster Tim Pool on Tenet Media called, "The Media is Lying About Project 2025." Dans, who was director of Project 2025 at the time, alleged "a very sophisticated group" was working to undermine the effort to set a policy agenda for the next Trump administration.

Project 2025 is a sweeping policy blueprint that the Heritage Foundation spearheaded that envisions increased presidential power. At least 31 of 38 authors are tied to former President Donald Trump. Democrats, including their House campaign arm and Vice President Kamala Harris, have criticized its policies and sought to tie it to Trump.

The Department of Justice did not name Tenet Media in its indictment released Wednesday, but the company's business filings with the Tennessee secretary of state, and its public messages, align with what is described in the indictment.

---

NPR

How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos

Details in the indictment match Nashville-based Tenet Media, which offered lucrative paychecks to prominent right-wing influencers.

.13 hours ago

The Daily Beast

DOJ Bombshell Alleges MAGA Media Group Is Backed by Russian Money

A media company matching the description of Tenet Media, which hosts six MAGA commentators, allegedly received $10 million from Russian...

.6 hours ago

The Tennessean

What to know about Tenet Media, Tennessee company linked to Russian propagandists

Two Russian nationals are accused of funneling nearly $10 million to covertly fund and direct a Tennessee company.

.16 hours ago

Mother Jones

Federal prosecutors charge a conservative media company took millions in Kremlin cash

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, and Benny Johnson have all worked with Tenet Media.

.19 hours ago

WIRED

Right-Wing Influencer Network Tenet Media Allegedly Spread Russian Disinformation

In an unsealed indictment, the DOJ alleges that employees of state-owned RT contracted for and oversaw the dissemination of Kremlin talking...

.18 hours ago

Washington Post

Justice Dept. charges two Russian media operatives in alleged scheme

The Justice Department charged two Russian media executives in an alleged scheme that authorities say illegally funneled millions of dollars...

.12 hours ago

Salon.com

Right-wing media group allegedly took $10 million in Russian financing: DOJ indictment

Tenet Media, boasting Tim Pool and Dave Rubin as talent, is seemingly implicated in a Russian misinformation scheme...

.17 hours ago

CBS News

U.S. says Russia funded media company that paid right-wing influencers millions for videos

The Justice Department charged two Russian nationals who worked for RT, a media outlet funded and controlled by the Russian government.

.18 hours ago

CNBC TV18

Tenet Media: All about 'Russia-funded' US media company linked to right-wing influencers

Tenet Media: On its official website, Tenet Media describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political...

.10 hours ago

Talking Points Memo

Is This Right-Wing Media Platform the Product of a $10 Million Russian Plot?

The Justice Department may have understated its findings in an indictment unsealed on Wednesday. Manhattan federal prosecutors revealed the...

---

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Liam Donovan

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Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Nov 10, 2021

I have not seen anyone who thinks that Rittenhouse is guilty demonstrate knowledge of the fundamental facts of the case. Every time, they have been entirely wrong about either what the laws are or the details of the case.

Mindlessly brandishing pitchforks and torches. Shameful.

Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Mar 27, 2021

Watching stuff like this is soul-rending.

It lights my blood on fire, and I know it's unhealthy to watch it, but I feel that turning it all off is shirking some kind of duty that the citizen has to be informed.

May the victim rest in peace. I hope we can make justice possible. https://x.com/stillgray/stat/stillgray/status/1375889790768320512

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Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Oct 27, 2020

Replying to

@joerogan

@spotifypodcasts

and

@Spotify

Sticking it to Spotify's woke employees, in a respectable but undeniably firm way. Well done

@joerogan

Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Jun 11, 2021

I hardly recognize my country anymore.

Quote

Maxime Bernier

@MaximeBernier

Jun 11, 2021

Our Leader Maxime Bernier was wrongfully arrested this afternoon by the RCMP in St-Pierre-Jolys, Man., for attending rallies with supporters.

-PPC Team

Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Jan 30, 2022

I find it funny that the class of people who pretend to care so much about science and accurate information are absolutely falling over themselves to find any singular example of extremism in the Canadian trucker protests and use it to represent the entire movement of thousands.

Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Mar 14, 2020

Reminds me of Hillary Clinton saying that women are most impacted by war because their husbands, brothers, and fathers are dying.

Quote

shoe

@shoe0nhead

Mar 13, 2020

it was only a matter of time

Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Nov 7, 2020

It's become trivial to point out hypocrisy in politics, but it's notable that the left will never blame Biden for any future repercussions resulting from Covid-19, regardless of how poorly he manages it. It'll always be "beyond control" or "the best we can do" or " because Trump" https://x.com/conservmillen//conservmillen/status/1325192904449667073

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Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Nov 4, 2020

Replying to

@MattWalshBlog

What integrity? This is some third world shit we're all witnessing.

Liam Donovan

@TheLiamDonovan

Oct 20, 2020

This take was laughable when I first heard it, with

@ddlovato

implying she was risking her career by denouncing

@realDonaldTrump

. But today reveals how ridiculous that is:

@prattprattpratt

is trending & being canceled because he didn't overtly support a fundraiser for

@JoeBiden

Quote

The Hill

@thehill

Oct 16, 2020

Demi Lovato on criticizing Trump: "I literally don't care if this ruins my career" http://hill.cm/HGbTB1p

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