Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool Exposed as Working For Alleged Russian Influence Operation in New DOJ Indictment

A new Department of Justice indictment unsealed on Wednesday accuses a Tennessee-based content company with several high profile right-wing personalities on its roster of being part of a Russian influence operation , working to infiltrate U.S. media with the Kremlin’s propaganda.

The indictment does not identify the company by name, “but descriptions in the indictment match those of Tennessee-based Tenet Media,” reported The Tennessean .

Tenet Media’s website declares “fearless voices live here,” and describes itself as “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” Creators currently listed on the site and featuring in videos on its YouTube channel include Dave Rubin , Benny Johnson , Tim Pool , Lauren Southern , Tayler Hansen , and Matt Christiansen .

According to a DOJ press release regarding the unsealed indictment Wednesday, two Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov , 31, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva , 27, also known as Lena, were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva were employed by RT, formerly known as Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, according to the indictment , which describes how RT has launched several “covert projects” that are “designed to shape public opinion” in the U.S. and other Western countries, including this alleged “funding and direction of a Tennessee-based online content creation company.”

The indictment goes on to allege that the defendants “have deployed nearly $10 million, laundered through a network of foreign shell entities, to covertly fund and direct” that Tennessee company.

Comments from top DOJ and FBI officials sharply denounced the alleged criminal scheme as “[c]overt attempts to sow division and trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda”and to “illegally manipulate American public opinion by sowing discord and division” by “co-opt[ing] online commentators by funneling them nearly $10 million to pump pro-Russia propaganda and disinformation across social media to U.S. audiences.”

The indictment alleges that Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva directed the scheme from Moscow using multiple fake identities and shell companies, funneling nearly $10 million to secretly finance and direct the activities of the Tennessee company, which included posting video content on multiple social media platforms that included TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. Since the company launched in November 2023, the indictment alleges, it has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have more than 16 million views just on YouTube.

From the DOJ press release:

Many of the videos posted by U.S. Company-1 contain commentary on events and issues in the U.S., such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States.

In order to carry out RT’s secret influence campaign in the United States, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva operated under covert identities at U.S. Company-1. Posing as an outside editor, Kalashnikov edited U.S. Company-1 content, monitored U.S. Company-1’s funding and hiring, and introduced Afanasyeva as a member of his purported editing team. Using the fake personas Helena Shudra and Victoria Pesti, Afanasyeva posted and directed the posting by U.S. Company-1 of hundreds of videos. Afanasyeva also collected information from and gave instructions to U.S. Company-1 staff. For example, after the March 22, 2024, terrorist attack on a music venue in Moscow, Afanasyeva asked one of U.S. Company-1’s founders to blame Ukraine and the United States for the attack, writing: “I think we can focus on the Ukraine/U.S. angle. . . . [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.”

…U.S. Company-1 never disclosed to its viewers that it was funded and directed by RT. Nor did U.S. Company-1 or its two founders register with the Attorney General as an agent of a foreign principal.

Both Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva remain at large. The charges against them are conspiracy to violate FARA, 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.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland .

Johnson tweeted a statement responding to the indictment, which was unsealed, not “leaked” as he stated:

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. 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.

Pool also posted a statement:

Rubin has not yet posted his own statement but did retweet Pool’s and shared a tweet from another user with a screenshot of the indictment saying it accused Lauren Chen and her husband of having “intentionally deceived the influencers mentioned below (seemingly Dave Rubin and Tim Pool) regarding the source of the funding.”

Read the DOJ press release here and the full indictment here .