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Two RussiaToday employees were indicted this week by the Justice Department which claimed they deployed nearly $10 million to circulate RT-curated content which garnered millions of views through an online content creation company.
Commentators claimed the company the DOJ points to, but which it doesn’t name, is a pro-Republican group where hosts openly promote Donald Trump.
“That company—TENET Media, which is not mentioned by name in the indictment—includes a constellation of well-known right-wing influencers, including Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson, among others," The Independent wrote.
National security expert Marcy Wheeler remarked on X that among the identifying details leading many to name TENET is the fact that both Johnston and Pool have the same number of YouTube subscribers as listed in a paragraph in the indictment.
Alan Feuer, a New York Times legal reporter, pointed out that the description of the "unnamed" company in the indictment matchesverbatim the right-wing media company. Many other news outlets and experts also named the company.
Pool interviewed Trump for his podcast where they spoke about, among other topics, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and how it could “lead to World War III.”
Trump also pledged that he would give “serious consideration” to pardoning Julian Assange. Both of those are “favorite themes of Russian propaganda efforts,” said one X account confirmed by legal analysts as operated by a former CIA lawyer.
Putin’s Proxies
The Independent wrote, “RT employees helped publish nearly 2,000 English-language videos on TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube, where they have racked up 16 million views, according to prosecutors.”
The media company claimed it was getting the cash from a “private investor,” who was actually a “fictitious persona,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the indictment.
It isn't thought the company's owners or employees knew Russia was funding the efforts. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco commented last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin and “his proxies” are relying on “increasingly sophisticated” efforts to interfere with the 2024 U.S. elections. She said that the efforts are “targeting specific voter demographics and swing-state voters in an effort to manipulate presidential and congressional election outcome.
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“They’re intent on co-opting unwitting Americans on social media to push narratives advancing Russian interests,” she also said.
