CNN
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The unnamed Tennessee-based firm that the Justice Division alleges was being funded by Russian operatives working as a part of a Kremlin-orchestrated affect operation concentrating on the 2024 US election is Tenet Media, which is linked to right-wing commentators with hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube and different social media platforms, in response to a US official briefed on the matter.
The indictment unsealed in New York’s Southern District accused two workers of RT, the Kremlin’s media arm, of funneling practically $10 million to an unidentified firm, described solely as “Firm 1” in court docket paperwork.
CNN has independently confirmed that “Firm 1” is Tenet Media, which is a platform for unbiased content material creators. It’s self-described as a “community of heterodox commentators that target Western political and cultural points,” in response to its web site, which matches language contained within the newly unsealed indictment.
The purpose of the operation, in response to prosecutors, was to gasoline pro-Russian narratives, partly, by pushing content material and information articles favoring Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and others who the Kremlin deemed to be friendlier to its pursuits.
The indictment additionally says that Firm 1’s web site identifies six commentators.
Among the many commentators listed on Tenet Media’s web site are right-wing personalities Benny Johnson and Tim Pool. Each have hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube and different social media platforms. Pool interviewed Trump on his podcast in Could.
In separate statements launched Wednesday, Johnson and Pool mentioned they have been victims of the alleged scheme and mentioned they maintained editorial management of the content material they’d created.
“We’re disturbed by the allegations in right now’s indictment, which clarify that myself and different influencers have been victims on this alleged scheme,” Johnson wrote in a submit on X.
“Ought to these allegations show true, I in addition to the opposite personalities and commentators have been deceived and are victims,” Pool mentioned on X. “The present is produced in its entirety by our native crew with out enter from anybody exterior to the corporate,” he added.
