The Tim Pool Russian Media Indictment Explained

(Tim Pool delivering anti-Ukraine commentary on his show).

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson, among others were all alleged to be, knowingly or otherwise, Russian propagandists in a recently unsealed federal indictment. The three have all released statements rebutting the claims and providing what they say is necessary context.

The indictment alleges Tennessee company Tenet media was funded by the Russian government through intermediaries at Russia Today (RT). Those intermediaries are said to have been working on behalf of the Russian government as part of a sweeping campaign to influence American election coverage.

We're Just Useful Idiots, We Swear

The thrust of all the content creator’s statements was essentially, “we didn’t know and they didn’t control our content.” Which is kind of hard to believe when you consider Benny Johnson was allegedly paid $400,000 a month for 4 videos a month and Tim Pool was allegedly paid $100,000 a podcast for his side project.

The insistence that it didn’t impact the content is hard to believe, especially in the face of their pro-Russian content. See below:

Maybe Tim Pool didn’t know he was being paid by the Russians when he made this hit or countless like it, but that is kind of hard to believe. It also doesn’t make it any better.

Foreign Interference in Our Elections is Here to Stay

This indictment comes after over a decade of parsing through how, who, what, when, where, and why the Russian government has meddled in our elections. It is clear they have been trying their best to interfere as significantly as possible that entire time. Sometimes to great success and consequence, other times they paid Tim Pool and company $10 million dollars to preach to the choir. Regardless, they want to help water the seeds of discontent in American elections.

Prosecutions and shining sunlight on dark money in politics, electoral politics, new media, all of it, is incredibly important. This is a small first step to holding those who would knowingly spread disinformation and sow discord accountable. It’s a fine line to walk and balance freedom and speech, but taking $100,000 cash payments to support a foreign actor’s foreign policy against the United States likely won’t be easy to paint as just freedom of speech at work.

The degree to which Tenet Media was facilitating Russian propaganda remains to be seen, these are just allegations after all. However, they fit with a pattern we’ve seen a lot over the last decade. A pattern that seems to catch right wing grifters in its wake every time. This time appears to be no different.