Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photo: Getty
On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department unveiled a bombshell indictment in New York’s Southern District, alleging that Russia was behind the funding of a United States–based right-wing media company and that it used the business’s influencers to push disinformation and Russia-backed propaganda. The company, Tenet Media, employs several prominent conservative commentators, including Benny Johnson and Tim Pool. None of the commentators have been implicated in any legal wrongdoing. Here’s what we know so far.
It charges two Russian nationals, 31-year-old Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and 27-year-old Elena Afanasyeva, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment alleges that they are employees of Russia Today, a state-controlled media organization that was forced to cease American operations in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors say that Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva helped to funnel nearly $10 million from foreign entities to an American right-wing media organization. The company, which went unnamed in the filing, has been identified in news reports as Tenet Media, a Nashville-based business that shares conservative content through Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms.
Tenet is said to have received “approximately 30 wire transfers from foreign entities totaling approximately $9.7 million” from around October 2023 to August 2024, with the bulk of those funds directed to its paid commentators. The money was distributed through shell companies based in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Mauritius.
Per the indictment, the two suspects assumed fake identities that allowed them to work with Tenet Media, with Kalashnikov posing as an outside editor and proceeding to monitor Tenet’s “internal communications and edited content.” Under two false names, Afanasyeva sought out raw footage from Tenet commentators and actively urged employees to push RT messaging through the social-media platform X, even posting links to 841 video clips herself. Neither of them identified themselves as RT employees.
In one instance, Afanasyeva helped push one of the Tenet creators to post about a 2024 terrorist attack on a Moscow music venue, specifically that the attackers were from Ukraine rather than ISIS as had been reported. “I think we can focus on the Ukraine/U.S. angle,” she reportedly said in a Discord message. “[T]he 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.”
Tenet Media was founded by Lauren Chen, a conservative internet personality, and her husband Liam Donovan. The company was officially incorporated in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2022, per reporting from the Tennessean. On its website, Tenet describes itself as “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues,” the same wording used in the indictment.
Chen and Donovan are clearly referenced as “Founder-1” and “Founder-2” in the filing, which describes the two as actively seeking funding from Russia for their company. Prosecutors also allege that they recruited influencers to their company while hiding the source of their funding through the use of an invented investor named “Eduard Grigoriann,” with the couple going as far as sharing a fake profile and biography to address any questions from potential hires.
On Thursday, Semafor reported that Chen has been fired by Blaze Media after the Justice Department’s indictment. She worked as a host for BlazeTV, the company’s premium subscription service.
Tenet has about 316,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel and tens of thousands more to its Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram accounts. The company counts prominent conservative names such as Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, and Matt Christiansen among its employees.
Some of Tenet’s biggest names have spoken out following the Justice Department’s indictment.
Tim Pool, who hosts the Culture War podcast on Tenet, denied any involvement with the alleged scheme. “Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims,” he wrote. “I cannot speak for anyone else at the company as to what they do or to what they are instructed.”
Benny Johnson, the creator of The Benny Show, issued a similar statement on social media, claiming he had nothing to do with the allegations. “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,” he wrote. “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme. My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise.”
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