Misinformation campaigns: Russian money was funneled to U.S. right-wing creators through a pro-Trump media outlet, prosecutors say
Here is the indictment and press release by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The indictment of two employees of RT - formerly ‘Russia Today’, a Kremlin-controlled propaganda outlet based in Moscow - includes allegations that they implemented a nearly $10 million plan to fund a U.S.-based company as one of their “covert projects.”
Employees of the Russia-backed media network RT funded and directed a scheme that sent millions of dollars to prominent right-wing commentators through a media company that appears to match the description of Tenet Media, a leading platform for pro-Trump voices […]
The indictment on Wednesday of two RT employees, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, includes allegations that the duo implemented a nearly $10 million plan to fund an unnamed Tennessee-based company as one of their “covert projects” to influence American politics by posting videos to TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.
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[Involved apoear to be] six commentators: Lauren Southern, Tim Pool, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson. The indictment refers to six commentators, who are not named.
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Details included in the indictment match those of two of Tenet’s personalities: Rubin and Pool. As of Wednesday, Rubin’s “The Rubin Report” YouTube channel had 2.44 million subscribers. The indictment refers to “Commentator-1” as having over 2.4 million YouTube subscribers. A person with over 1.3 million YouTube subscribers is referred to as “Commentator-2.” Pool now has 1.37 million subscribers. The indictment also refers to three other commentators, including one with female pronouns, but lacked any information that could directly identify their channels.
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