What right-wing influencers actually said in these Tenet Media videos

The content of these videos was described by prosecutors as “consistent” with Russia's goal of sowing political discord in the United States. Topics covered include freedom of speech, illegal immigrants, diversity in video games, alleged racism against whites and Elon Musk.

While Tenet is not named in an indictment released earlier this week, WIRED and other media outlets were able to identify the organization because prosecutors listed its motto as that of a company called “US Company-1.” Prosecutors allege that two employees of Russia's state-backed broadcaster RT, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, who are charged with conspiracy to launder money and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, paid Tenet and its parent company $9.7 million to produce and distribute videos supporting Russian causes. The majority of that money is said to have gone to Tenet's network of popular influencers, which includes Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern.

The influencers are not accused of wrongdoing by the government. Johnson, Pool, Rubin and fellow talent Tayler Hansen and Matt Christiansen have denied in statements knowing about the alleged Russian influence scheme and portrayed themselves as its victims. (They did not respond to requests for comment.) Prosecutors say right-wing personality Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, Canadian citizens who founded Tenet — the two, who are not accused of any crime, are not named in the indictment but are linked to the company through corporate records — were aware they were working with Russians and did not register “as an agent of a foreign principal, as required by law.” The indictment alleges that the couple, who have not been charged, failed to inform the influencers or other Tenet employees about the source of their funding.

Nevertheless, Afanasyeva edited, published and forwarded the article using false identities [Tenet] of hundreds of videos,” the indictment says. The indictment does not name specific videos allegedly influenced by RT employees, but prosecutors say they were closely involved in Tenet's editorial process: “Although the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the themes and content of the videos often align with the Russian government's interest in reinforcing domestic political divisions in the United States in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Russian government interests, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine.”