Conservative influencers ‘duped’ into working for Russia

Conservative influencers were allegedly ‘duped’ into working with Russian assets as they raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars for their videos under a sprawling $10million ‘covert project’ by Kremlin-backed RT, federal officials said Wednesday. The bombshell indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York accuses RT employees Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena of Afanasyeva of implementing a plan to shell out nearly $10million to a Tennessee-based company to churn out videos ‘consistent’ with the Kremlin’s ‘interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.’

Though the indictment does not name the Tennessee-based media company, its details match up exactly with Tenet Media – which employs well-known conservative personalities like Tim Pool, Dave Rubin (Pictured) and Benny Johnson. Its president Liam Donovan is the husband of Lauren Chen, a Canadian influencer who is listed as a contributor of several opinion articles for RT from 2021 and 2022. But the conservative media darlings were unaware of the scheme, and at least two of them were provided false information about the source of the company’s funding. ‘The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers [its] ties to RT and the Russian government,’ Attorney General Merrick Garland said as he announced the charges against the RT employees for conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. ‘Instead, the defendants and the company claimed that the company was sponsored by a private investor, but that private investor was a fictitious persona,’ Garland said.

They were told that the company was sponsored by a private investor named ‘Eduard Grigoriann,’ whom the defendants described as an ‘accomplished financial professional’ who held positions at a multinational bank in both Brussels and France, according to NBC News. In their own online communications, however, the founders of the company allegedly referred to their backers as ‘the Russians.’

Kalashnikov are Afanasyeva are at large, and it was not immediately clear if they had lawyers who could speak on their behalf. DailyMail.com has reached out to Tenet Media and RT for comment, but in a response to a request for comment from NBC News, a spokesperson for RT wrote ‘Hahahaha!’ and ‘We gotta earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow.’ The indictment claims the conservative voices were raking in large sums of money from the Russian duo. It said that a whopping $8.7million was sent ‘to the production companies of Commentator-1, Commentator-2 and Commentator-3 alone.’

Commentator-1 is now believed to be Dave Rubin, while Commentator-2 is likely Tim Pool (pictured left). It is unclear from the description in the indictment who Commentator-3 may be. An exchange cited in the indictment also claims Commentator-1 said the contract ‘would need to be closer to $5million a year for him to be interested,’ while Commentator-2 said it ‘would take $100,000 per weekly episode to make it worth his while.’ One of Tenet’s founders allegedly said the $100,000 fee would be ‘very hard’ for the company to ‘recoup the costs’ based on ad revenue from web traffic or sponsors alone, but they decided to move forward with the agreement anyway, NBC reports.

Another unidentified influencer’s contract, meanwhile, reportedly included a $400,000 monthly fee, a $100,000 signing bonus and an additional performance bonus. Eventually, payments from the Russians allegedly made up 90 percent of the deposits made to the company’s accounts. As the money was pouring in, the indictment claims the Russian backers pushed Tenet’s US commentators to share Russian-funded content with their larger audiences. They even openly worried about how few of their ‘raw videos’ were being posted by certain of the company’s talent, the indictment says. Still, Tenet became a home for staunch pro-Trump voices, with many of its commentators interviewing the former president and his family while railing against US funding for Ukraine and downplaying the events of January 6, 2021.

Pool, who hosted Trump on his podcast earlier this year, posted on X last month that ‘Ukraine is our enemy’ in response to an allegation that a Ukrainian man was involved in the 2022 undersea explorations that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. Rubin, a self-described libertarian who was previously part of the liberal news commentary show The Young Turks, has also been a vocal critic of Ukraine, arguing they ‘can’t win’ the war against Russia. But the conservative influencers have since insisted they had no knowledge of the Tenet’s ties to Russia, as its six main conservative voices amassed more than 7million subscribers on YouTube and more than 7million followers on X.

‘These allegations come as a complete shock to me and the other hosts at Tent Media,’ Taylor Hansen wrote in a lengthy statement on X. ‘I want to be as clear as possible, I was never directed to report on any topic and had complete freedom and control over my reporting at all times. I would never agree to any arrangement where I am not the sole person in charge of the stories I cover and the content I create. I’ve had complete freedom to cover what I choose at Tenet, unlike any other media company I’ve ever worked for and certainly more so than the left-wing and [mainstream media] outlets that are directed to cover certain stories and get punished if they don’t.’

Rubin also argued that the indictment ‘clearly’ shows ‘that I and other commentators were the victims of this scheme. ‘I knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity. Period,’ he said. Similarly, Tim Pool, wrote : ‘Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.’

He noted that his Culture War podcast was licensed by Tenet Media, but had already existed beforehand. ‘Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show, and the contents of the show are often apolitical. Examples include discussing spirituality, dating and video games. That being said, we still do not know what is true as these are only allegations,’ Pool continued. He concluded by saying ‘Putin is a scumbag’ and ‘Russia sucks donkey balls.’ Benny Johnson, meanwhile, said Tenet ‘pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor. ‘Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms-length deal, which was later terminated,’ he said. ‘We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme,’ he wrote. And Matt Christiansen said, At no point has anyone ever directed me what to say or not to say, and I would never agree to anything otherwise. My videos and streams for Tenet are exactly the same as my videos and streams on my personal channels,’ he noted. ‘Every word is from me and me alone.’

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