The pattern from recent years isn’t exactly subtle. In 2016, Russia targeted U.S. elections. In 2018, Russia targeted U.S. elections. In 2020, Russia targeted U.S. elections. In 2022, Russia targeted U.S. elections. And in 2024, American intelligence agencies have spent months alerting the public to the fact that Russia is once again targeting U.S. elections.
It was against this backdrop that Biden administration agencies and officials this week announced a series of efforts intended to combat the Kremlin’s 2024 scheme, including sanctions and a criminal indictment against two employees of the state-owned RT media network, who were accused of conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Andrew Weissmann, a longtime Justice Department veteran and an MSNBC legal analyst, pointed to specific details in the indictment to emphasize that the alleged Russian plot had the “explicit goal” of helping Donald Trump win the 2024 election.
Given the circumstances, the indictment was a bold move — legally, diplomatically, and with U.S. national security interests in mind. But as an NBC News report explained, there’s also a political dimension to the story, specifically related to prominent right-wing commentators.
Employees of the Russia-backed media network RT funded and directed a scheme that sent millions of dollars to prominent right-wing commentators through a media company that appears to match the description of Tenet Media, a leading platform for pro-Trump voices, according to an NBC News review of charging documents, business records and social media profiles.
According to the allegations raised by federal prosecutors, two indicted RT employees, among other things, helped execute a nearly $10 million plan to fund a media company as one of their “covert projects” to influence American politics ahead of the elections.
As NBC News’ report added, the indictment didn’t reference the company’s name, but the description matches that of Tenet Media.
Chances are, most Americans are unfamiliar with the company’s name, but Tenet has partnered with some pro-Trump, far-right commentators with significant profiles in right-wing media: Lauren Southern, Tim Pool, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson. “It is unclear from the indictment the extent to which each of the commentators realized where the money was coming from, though it stated that ‘Commentator-1’ and ‘Commentator-2’ were unaware they were being paid by Russian efforts and had been deceived about the source of the funding,” NBC News’ report added. By way of social media, each of the right-wing media personalities in question issued statements denying wrongdoing, and several characterized themselves as “victims” of a deceptive scheme. Time will tell what kind of impact the allegations have on the far-right personalities and their role in conservative media, but given the scope of the controversy, the story appears unlikely to fade anytime soon.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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