Pro-Trump 'influencers' allegedly secretly funded by Russia now call themselves 'victims'

Former President Donald Trump sat down in late May for an interview with Tim Pool , a right-wing "influencer," where they commiserated about the money America has spent to help Ukraine after that country was invaded by Russia.

Somewhere in Russia, someone must have been thinking at that time that pouring $10 million in the past year into the company that promotes Pool's podcast , "Timcast IRL," and a small band of similarly provocative conservative content creators was a very smart investment.

"Putin respects me. Zelenskyy respects me," Trump told Pool about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "I know all the players, and I want to get that war ended."

I've seen no evidence to suggest that Trump knew in that moment that Russian money was paying to support that podcast. Pool now says he was in the dark about the alleged Russian money backing the company promoting his show.

But, in retrospect, and after a federal indictment Wednesday of two Russian media executives accused of spearheading the secret influencer scheme, this is inescapable – the conservative content allegedly funded by one of America's most dangerous geopolitical foes is completely in tune with Russia's own propaganda.

And why? Because that sort of propaganda attracts attention, which creates profit.

What the federal indictment on Russian involvement says

The indictment charges Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, executives from the Russian state-run media arm known as RT, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The DOJ said the scheme arose from an effort to create an " empire of covert projects " after RT was banned from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

This was not exactly top-level spy craft. The indictment notes that RT's editor-in-chief bragged about the scheme on Russian television in February. James Bond, she ain't. The editor was one of 10 people and two entities hit with American sanctions Wednesday.

The Russians, according to the indictment, worked with two " foreign nationals " who live in America and set up two companies in Canada and in Tennessee to promote videos on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and X, the website previously known as Twitter.

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Internet sleuths swiftly drew connections, as I did through records searches , to Tenet Media in Nashville, founded in 2022 by Liam Donovan and his wife, Lauren Chen, a Canadian right-wing commenter.

The foundation dates of their company and their mission statement as home to "heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues" match up perfectly to details in the indictment .

Tenet Media and the Canadian company, Roaming Millennial Inc. , are listed as "U.S. Company-1" and "Canadian Company-1" in the indictment .

As The Tennessean reported, "Canadian business records show Roaming Millennial Incorporated was registered to Liam Donovan and Lauren Yu Sum Tam, likely the social media personality's legal name ." Donovan and Chen, who calls herself "Roaming Millennial" online, are not accused of any illegal activity in the case. They didn't respond to my requests for comment.

Was Tim Pool paid by Russia? Influencers say they weren't aware of possible Russian connection.

This case is just getting started in the courts, but three of Tenet Media's best-known influencers are already out with a verdict – they're the real victims here.

Pool on Wednesday posted on social media that he "as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived" while insisting he had "full editorial control" of his podcast at all times.

Dave Rubin, host of "The Rubin Report," posted Wednesday that he and his fellow "commentators were the victims of this scheme. I knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity. Period."

Benny Johnson, host of "The Benny Show," proclaimed Wednesday , "We are disturbed by the allegations in today's indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme."

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Let's say all of that is true and that Pool, Rubin and Johnson were duped into deals with a company where $9.7 million "received from foreign wire transfers" amounted to 90% of the deposits from last October to last month, as alleged on page 27 of the 32-page indictment.

I'm left with this question: Why would the Russians pay for propaganda these three influencers and others would have likely produced on their own anyway? Just scan the titles of their podcasts and look at the right-wing members of the U.S. Congress who are eager to sit down for chats. Talk about a waste of rubles.

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The truth is right-wing influencers likely won't change their content

Maybe it's as simple as this: Division pays, no matter who is picking up the tab.

Pool, Rubin and Johnson were doing this sort of stuff before they struck deals with Tenet Media. They certainly won't be changing their ways anytime soon. Pool noted Thursday that the attention was bringing on new social media followers .

One chuckle from the indictment helps explain it all. It notes that Afanasyeva, the RT executive now facing charges, sent Tenet Media a video in February of "a well-known U.S. political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia ." A Tenet employee suggested "it just feels like overt shilling" but still put it in the company's social media feed.

The date of that visit matches exactly with a video that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson posted of his stop in a Moscow grocery story in February, where his fawning over all things Russia and open anger about America became a flashpoint of derision. Do you think Carlson regrets a minute of that attention-grabbing stunt?

The moral: There's money to be made as long as influencers stick to this simple three-part business model – always seek to be the center of attention, always claim to be the victim of anything that might reflect poorly, and always refuse to accept any responsibility for any of it.

If you need a tutorial, the influencers and the right-wing politicians who show up as guests on their podcasts provide examples daily.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pro-Trump 'influencers' allegedly secretly funded by Russia now call themselves 'victims'