A federal indictment has exposed a massive scandal involving a Tennessee media company, Tenet Media, that secretly took nearly $10 million from Russian state-backed media. The indictment, unsealed on Wednesday, reveals that Tenet Media was actually a covert Russian operation designed to push hidden Kremlin messages to American audiences.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) claims that Russian media giant RT and its employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, funneled this cash to Tenet Media to manipulate opinions in the U.S. The scheme allegedly aimed to stir up division and influence political narratives in the West.
High-profile conservative figures like Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Lauren Southern were all involved with Tenet Media. They were duped into believing they were working with a wealthy investor named “Eduard Grigoriann” – a name that turned out to be fake. They had no clue their funding came from the Kremlin. Rubin, Pool, and Johnson have all publicly claimed they were tricked and are now victims of the scheme.
The indictment details how RT’s operatives and Tenet Media’s founders, Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, worked together to deceive influencers. Chen is a well-known conservative YouTuber and Donovan is the president of Tenet Media. They managed to convince some of the influencers to sign lucrative contracts – Pool reportedly received $100,000 per podcast, while Johnson was paid $400,000 a month plus a $100,000 signing bonus.
The indictment also reveals some insiders at Tenet Media weren’t happy with the way things were going. One producer even complained about a video they were forced to post, saying it felt like “overt shilling.” Despite this, the content pushed by Tenet was heavily critical of figures like Kamala Harris, raising further suspicions.
In a twist of irony, Tenet’s last social media posts before the indictment was about another alleged foreign agent – a Chinese government sympathizer who supposedly used her position to push Chinese interests in the U.S.
The timing of this revelation, just two months before the election, is raising eyebrows. Critics are questioning whether this scandal was strategically timed, especially after recent revelations about Chinese espionage and upcoming legal battles involving these influencers.
As the story unfolds, the political landscape might be rocked by this explosive scandal, leaving many to wonder: how deep does this deception go?
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