Six right-wing social media influencers tied to Tenet Media, a media company the Department of Justice alleges was funded by Russian operatives looking to influence the 2024 election, have among them a history of plagiarism, promoting conspiracy theories, downplaying the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and giving a platform to extremist personalities.
American conservative political commentator Benny Johnson on June 15, 2024.
Benny Johnson, who has more than 6.6 million followers across YouTube, X and Instagram, was described by the Washington Post in 2015 as the "king of viral political news” and on Wednesday said he was a "victim" in any alleged scheme by the Russians used to influence the election.
Podcaster Tim Pool, who hosts the conservative Tim Pool Daily Show and Timcast IRL in addition to the Culture War podcast, which was licensed by Tenet Media, on Wednesday said he always had "full editorial control" of his shows and ended a lengthy statement on X about the alleged Russian interference with "Putin is a scumbag, Russia sucks donkey balls."
The host of the "The Rubin Report” YouTube channel with 2.45 million subscribers as of Thursday, David Rubin has been identified as the likely "Commentator-1" who signed a deal with Tenet to produce four videos per week in exchange for $400,000 per month and a $100,000 signing bonus, but who also was unaware the money was coming from Russian sources, the indictment said.
YouTube gamer-turned-political-personality Matt Christiansen, whose recent videos touch on topics like assault weapons bans, abortion and immigration, said he could not have been "unwittingly duped" into creating videos that leans in a certain direction, because he writes his own content and there has been "no change in my perspective or the nature of my content" since signing with Tenet.
Another Tenet Media personality, Tayler Hansen, says he had "complete freedom and control over my reporting at all times" while working for the company and accused the DOJ of running a "smear job against an uncensored, unapologetic, and America first media company."
Lauren Southern, a conservative Canadian personality, is the sixth person identified as having worked with Tenet Media but she has not publicly commented on the DOJ’s accusations.
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Johnson, 37, has worked in the conservative media space for over a decade. His career includes stints at TheBlaze, the National Review, Buzzfeed and the Independent Review Journal—with the last two each accusing him of plagiarism in his time at the publications. He has promoted conspiracy theories surrounding the 2024 election, including that Taylor Swift, who has not endorsed either candidate, is being used by the Democrats in a "election interference psyop." Johnson is currently the chief creative officer of Turning Point USA, an organization that works to spread "traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family and fiscal responsibility” on high school and university campuses.
Pool, who also has more than 1.3 million YouTube followers, has been identified as the person most likely to be "Commentator-2" in the DOJ indictment, who allegedly told Tenet Media “it would take 100k per weekly episode” to make joining the company “worth his while.” The indictment specifically said that Commentator-2 was unaware their deals with Tenet were being bankrolled by Russia. Pool first rose to prominence by livestreaming the Occupy Wall Street movement before carving out his own brand of conservative commentary. Pool, 38, interviewed Trump on his podcast earlier this year, and has been criticized in the past for giving guests like the Proud Boys and antisemites a platform.
Rubin, a gay commentator, identified with libertarian politics before ultimately starting to identify himself as a conservative in the 2020 election, when he announced he would vote for Trump. He has worked as a commentator since 2012, when he created the Rubin Report, first as a talk show, then a Youtube Channel. Rubin, 48, has been criticized for giving a platform to political extremists, particularly for an interview he conducted with white nationalist Stefan Molyneux. In response to the Russia probe announcement, Rubin on X said he "knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity. Period.”
Christiansen's YouTube channel has 235,000 followers and his podcast, the Matt Christiansen Hour, is made with Tenet Media. He often posts videos critical of Democratic policies and the Kamala Harris campaign, as well as viral topics like police violence and bans of assault weapons.
Hansen describes himself as a "field reporter" for Tenet Media whose right-wing content and commentary has focused on the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol and his distaste for drag shows, which he claimed to Fox News in 2022 were being used to sexually groom children. He has fewer than 200,000 followers across X, Instagram and YouTube.
Southern, 29, is a Canadian personality with more than 1.4 million followers on X, Instagram and YouTube. She worked for far-right commentary website Rebel Media before striking out on her own, and has been criticized for using her platform to promote white nationalist ideals. Southern made the news for helping to obstruct a search-and-rescue operation for refugees in 2017 and embarking on a speaking tour with white supremacist Stefan Molyneux in 2018. She has been banned from monetizing on platforms like Patreon. The Atlantic called Southern "the alt-right’s most influential woman" in 2020.
$8.7 million. That's how much money was paid to the production companies of Commentator-1, Commentator-2, and Commentator-3, the DOJ said, thought to be Rubin, Pool and an unidentified content creator.
An indictment filed by the DOJ Wednesday accused the Kremlin of funding a media company in an attempt to get right-wing influencers to push pro-Russia propaganda on social media. The indictment did not specifically name Tenet Media or any of the influencers, but the description of the company matches that of Tenet, whose website lists six prominent right-wing social media personalities as part of its talent roster. The indictment says Russian state media employees spent $10 million supporting content creators who posted about views “often consistent with the Government of Russia's interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.” The indictment does not accuse the individual influencers of knowing about the Russian scheme.
Liam Donovan and Lauren Tam, better known as Lauren Chen, are listed as the registered business agents for Tenet Media. Chen is listed as a contributor for Russia-backed media network RT and is a video creator for The Blaze, where she hosts a conservative show called “Pseudo-Intellectual.” Chen has publicly praised Putin in the past.