Alina Habba's desperate attempt to downplay the new Russia scandal fails to have the desired effect

Trump campaign advisers are not distancing themselves from Tenet Media, the conservative media outlet accused of accepting millions of dollars from Russia to spread foreign propaganda. Instead, they have chosen to defend it.

Alina Habba, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, tried to dismiss the Justice Department's charges on Sunday by tracing the scandal to the “Russia-Russia-Russia hoax” of 2016.

“It's so obvious,” Habba told Fox News on Sunday morning. “The story now is that there's a criminal investigation into a $10 million investigation into two people who had no idea they were being backed by a company that allegedly had ties to Russia.”

“So what happened in 2016? There was the Russia-Russia hoax. The media ran a story that we now know was funded by members of the DNC and their lawyers. Hillary Clinton was involved in all of that – we know that because she had to pay a fine for it,” Habba continued, referring to the DNC and Clinton campaign's failure to report the cost of the Trump-Russia dossier research to the Federal Election Commission in 2016.

Habba then praised the Durham report, an objective finding that found no evidence that the FBI was guilty of wrongdoing in its investigation into Trump's ties to Russia. He condemned the Mueller report – which also left open the possibility of obstructing relations between Trump and Russia – as a waste of “a lot of taxpayer money.”

“A $10 million payment to some podcasters who knew nothing about the alleged Russian ties is now intended to create the impression that Russia supports Trump,” Habba added.

The U.S. Department of Justice indictment accuses Tenet and its founders of accepting nearly $10 million from Russia Today employees as part of a “plan to create and distribute content to a U.S. audience containing hidden messages from the Russian government,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

Others, even right-wing outlets, are not so quick to side with the allegedly compromised media personalities. As a result of the alleged propaganda plot, Tenet co-founder Lauren Chen lost her slot at another far-right media group, Blaze Media. Blaze deleted episodes of her podcast from Spotify and her staff page from its website shortly after the charges were announced. Blaze Media CEO Tyler Cardon told Semafor that the conservative host had been “terminated.”

YouTube also removed Tenet Media's content from its platform “after careful review” following the charges, telling NBC News that the decision to remove the channel and its partners was part of “ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations.”

The Russian money was used to finance videos by popular right-wing extremist figures, including podcasters Tim Pool and Lauren Southern. Pool described himself as a “victim” of the Tenet scandal.

“I have been contacted by the FBI as a potential victim of a crime,” Pool posted on X on Thursday. “The FBI believes I have information relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation and has requested a voluntary interview. I will offer my assistance in this matter.”