On Sept. 4, the Department of Justice indicted Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva for their covert funding of domestic media outlet Tenet Media. The media outlet deployed $10 million of Russian money, according to the indictment, which was reportedly used by right-leaning talent to create content for an American audience. The talent included Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Dave Rubin, among others, who all appear to have been unaware of the funding source.
The indictment is odd for several reasons. First, prosecutors would have known early in their investigation that the defendants would never set foot in an American courtroom, with extradition from Russia being impossible. This raises the question: Why investigate and prosecute a case that will never be tried? Second, the DOJ announced the indictment with an unusual amount of fanfare, going so far as to coordinate the announcement with simultaneous press releases from the Treasury Department and State Department. In my career as a federal prosecutor, I never once saw that happen. That’s not to say it never happened, but it’s rare.
Predictably, the usual cohort of regime propaganda outlets breathlessly hailed the indictment, never failing to capitalize on an opportunity to paint their opponents as Russian agents, regardless of the truth of such claims. The New York Times (“Russia Secretly Worms Its Way Into America’s Conservative Media”) and MSNBC (“MAGA Influencers Are Scrambling After the DOJ’s Russia Indictment”) are just two examples. Other regime mandarins acted accordingly. YouTube, for example, removed hundreds of Tenet
