On the menu today: Yesterday’s Morning Jolt was about the Chinese government’s efforts to physically assault its critics on U.S. soil, and its surreptitious efforts to influence the U.S. government by bribing state officials. (The trolls on X who are big fans of the Chinese government have discovered the piece, and contend I’m hiding the sinister influence of the Jews.) Today’s newsletter is about how, as our Noah Rothman observes, all hostile states — including both Iran and Russia — are attempting to influence the U.S. political system and Americans’ decision-making.
Pawns in the Enemy’s Game
Hey, any updates on former Biden administration envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, or the State Department’s Ariane Tabatabai, the two Biden administration officials who were reportedly part of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s “Iran Experts Initiative”?
Apparently, the U.S. State Department has been stonewalling congressional inquiries for a year. Back in May, we learned that the FBI is looking into whether Malley “moved classified information onto his personal email, where it may have fallen into the hands of a foreign actor.” (Apparently, they’re moving at Hunter Biden speed on this one.) The evidence suggests that the people Joe Biden hired to enact his policies regarding Iran were actually working for the Iranian government, or at least worked so closely with Iran that it’s hard to tell where they stopped and where Tehran’s agenda began.
Still, the big news out of the U.S. Justice Department late Wednesday was the indictment of two employees of RT — what used to be called “Russia Today” — “in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The two RT employees, Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
None of the American commentators involved have been charged with any crimes. This is not an assault on the First Amendment rights of American citizens. As I will elaborate more in a bit, you have every right to sing Vladimir Putin’s praises if you want. But if your bosses work for the Russian government, they have to register as foreign agents, as six people currently have. And they can’t launder the money to hide the source of the payments.
Over at least the past year, RT and its employees, including KOSTIANTYN KALASHNIKOV, a/k/a “Kostya,” and ELENA AFANASYEVA, a/k/a “Lena,” the defendants, have deployed nearly $10 million, laundered through a network of foreign shell entities, to covertly fund and direct U.S. Company-1. U.S. Company-1 publishes English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube. Using multiple fake personas, AFANASYEVA edited, posted, and directed the posting by U.S. Company-1 of hundreds of videos. Many of the videos published by U.S. Company-1 contain commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine.
Since publicly launching in or about November 2023, U.S. Company-1 has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone. . . .
On its website, U.S. Company-1 describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” and identifies six commentators — including Commentator-1 and Commentator-2 — as its “talent.”
It did not take long for various reporters to piece together the details. Tennessee-based Tenet Media describes itself as “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues” and has six featured commentators: Lauren Southern, Tim Pool, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson.
Again, from the indictment: “KALASHNIKOV, AFANASYEVA, Founder-1, and Founder-2 also worked together to deceive two U.S. online commentators (‘Commentator-1’ and ‘Commentator-2’), who respectively have over 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers.”
We gave a general sense of which figure is which unspecified commentator in the indictment; Benny Johnson currently has 2.39 million YouTube subscribers, and Tim Pool has 1.34 million subscribers. Dave Rubin has 2.45 million. The indictment refers to “commentator-4” with female pronouns, indicating she is Lauren Southern.
Business records show Tenet Media is owned by right-wing influencer Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan (apparently not the Liam Donovan you know from X). They are not named in the indictment but referred to as “Founder 1” and “Founder 2.”
Based upon what is in the indictment, the commentators did not know they were on the Russian payroll: When they asked who was paying them, representatives of the company replied by fabricating a wealthy benefactor named “Eduard Grigoriann.”
Credit “Commentator 1” for having at least a little curiosity about who was going to be paying him to make these videos, and why he couldn’t find any information about him:
On or about February 28, 2023, Founder-1 emailed Persona-1 that Founder-1 had spoken with Commentator-1, who would “like some material about Mr Grigoriann to learn a bit about who [Commentator-1 would] be working with.”
The indictment continues:
On or about April 21, 2023 and again on or about April 24, 2023, Founder-1 performed Google searches for “Eduard Grigoriann” and for “[Bank-1] Eduard Grigoriann.” As of in [sic] or about August 2024, neither Google search returns any results for a person by that name, much less any webpages describing an “Eduard Grigoriann” as a finance professional affiliated with Bank-1.
The Russians sent Commentator-1 an entirely fabricated profile with biographical information, claiming that “Eduard Grigoriann” had graduated cum laude with a “Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management,” had worked in Belgium, Singapore, and France, had managed risk analysis and international relations, been an investment manager, formed his own private-equity firm . . . and he had somehow done all this without leaving any digital footprint anywhere.
Something about this did stink to Commentator-1; he said he was worried about the profile of “Eduard Grigoriann” because “Grigoriann” advocated for “social justice” causes.
The indictment notes that “on or about February 16, 2023, Persona-1 had misspelled the surname of his purported boss as ‘Grigorian’ (rather than ‘Grigoriann’).”
The commentators were promised and paid a small fortune for their video work:
a. Commentator-1’s contract, which was between Commentator-1’s production company and U.S. Company-1, provided for “four weekly videos” to be hosted by Commentator-1 and livestreamed by U.S. Company-1. In exchange for a monthly fee of $400,000, plus a $100,000 signing bonus and an additional performance bonus, Commentator-’s production company agreed that “any and all content created . . . under this Agreement shall be the property of” U.S. Company-I.”
b. Commentator-2’s contract, which was between Commentator-2’s production company and U.S. Company-I, provided for weekly videos to be hosted by Commentator-2 and livestreamed by U.S. Company-1. In exchange for a fee of $100,000 per video, Commentator-2’s production company granted U.S. Company-1 “a non-exclusive, non-transferable . . . license, during the applicable License Term, to display, transmit, and distribute the Licensed Content.”
A fee of $400,000 per month adds up to $4.8 million per year. For perspective, San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback Brock Purdy will make a bit more than $1 million this year.
Now, if someone whom you have never met and never heard of, and who has no online paper trail at all — someone who you cannot prove actually exists — offers to pay you a monthly fee of $400,000 to make one video a week, there are two ways to react. One is to emulate Steve Miller and take the money and run. The other is to wonder just who the hell would pay that much money for that little work, and to smell a rat.
The founders of Tenet Media — not mentioned by name in the indictment, but identified in business documents as — knew darn well they were working for Russians:
Founder-1 and Founder-2 admitted to each other in their private communications that their “investors” were, in truth and in fact, the “Russians” — the same term that Founder-1 and Founder-2 previously used to refer to RT while working directly under contract with RT, as described above.
What kind of commentary were the Russians getting for their money?
Ukraine is the enemy! [He pounds the desk.] Of this country! Ukraine is our enemy! Being funded by the Democrats! I will stress this again, one of the greatest enemies of our nation right now is Ukraine! They are expanding his war — now, don’t get me wrong, I know. You’ve got criminal elements of the U.S. government pushing them, and guiding them, and telling them what to do. Ukraine is now accused, a German war (I think he means warrant) issued for blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline . . . triggering this conflict! Ukraine is the greatest threat to this nation, and the world! We should rescind all funding and financing, pull out all military support, and we should apologize to Russia. And they know it.
I mean, it’s subtle, but a discerning viewer might notice a pro-Putin message in there.
(If Pool’s timeline seems wildly off to you, that’s because it is; Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, and the Nord Stream pipelines blew up on September 26, 2022.)
For what it’s worth, Pool made a statement on X last night, “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 videos games.” He added, “Putin is a scumbag, Russia sucks donkey balls.” (I don’t know if that statement is exculpatory; I just want to see if I can get “Russia sucks donkey balls” past the Jolt’s editors this morning.)
In a statement on X, Benny Johnson 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. My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise.”
Yeah, he should be disturbed.
The commentators will claim — truthfully, even — that they never saw any reason to suspect that the Russians were financing this media company. Everything at Tenet Media must have seemed perfectly normal to them, because Europe is full of Belgian private-equity-fund managers who want to spend millions of dollars a year on light-work gigs for right-wing social-media influencers. Everything seemed on the up-and-up!
Did you know the word “gullible” is not in the dictionary? Where it would be listed, it just says, “see ‘Tenet Media commentators.’”
Ronald Reagan, testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in October 1947:
As a citizen I would hesitate, or not like, to see any political party outlawed on the basis of its political ideology. We have spent 170 years in this country on the basis that democracy is strong enough to stand up and fight against the inroads of any ideology. However, if it is proven that an organization is an agent of a power, a foreign power, or in any way not a legitimate political party, and I think the government is capable of proving that, if the proof is there, then that is another matter.
(There’s a version of this testimony in the new film.)
It’s a free country. If you want to say that Vladimir Putin is swell, that the Russian regime is a defender of Christianity and traditional values, that U.S. aid to Ukraine’s defense is a waste, and that borscht is better than apple pie, well then, the Constitution protects your right to say those things.
But when you start getting giant piles of Kremlin money to make those arguments . . . well, as the Gipper would observe, that is another matter. See, at that point, you’re not really speaking as an American anymore. You’re speaking as the secret propagandist for a hostile foreign power.
And whether or not there are legal consequences for accepting a small fortune to tout the virtues of a regime that fires missiles into children’s hospitals, there really ought to be reputational consequences.
ADDENDUM: In case you missed it yesterday, Joe Biden wishes his ancestors had committed more murders in the name of labor disputes, and there’s a distinct lack of Allred-mania in Texas this year.