Donald Trump has completely dismissed an explosive allegation that conservative media figures were allegedly raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in Russian cash to promote pro-Kremlin narratives.
Instead of criticizing Russia’s supposed mouthpieces, Trump lashed out at the Justice Department and insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would rather have Kamala Harris in the White House.
“Comrade Kamala Harris and her Justice Department are trying to interfere and suppress the election in favor of the Democrats by resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is absolutely FALSE,” Trump wrote in his Thursday post.
“In fact, President Putin would prefer to see Comrade Kamala Harris in office, as he said firmly this morning. Why don’t they investigate… all the other enemies of the people who had so much influence on the 2020 election and who are trying to manipulate and steal the 2024 presidential election?”
Donald Trump has reacted angrily to allegations that conservative media figures were receiving Russian money in an attempt to interfere in this year’s US presidential election. Above, Trump appears at a campaign rally in New York on Thursday afternoon
Trump’s comments on his Truth Social blog came after an indictment filed Wednesday alleged that a media company linked to six conservative influencers was secretly funded by the Russian state.
Trump’s comments on Truth Social came after an indictment filed Wednesday alleged that a media company linked to six conservative influencers was secretly funded by Russian state media.
Employees were asked to produce English-language videos that were “often consistent” with the Kremlin’s “interest in amplifying internal U.S. divisions to weaken American opposition” to Russian interests, such as its war in Ukraine.
The alleged perpetrators include well-known personalities such as Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson, who together have millions of followers online. All of them have been major players in right-wing political discourse since Trump was president.
According to the indictment, right-wing provocateur Lauren Chen and her husband conspired to conceal Tenet’s funding source from third parties.
On Thursday, Trump criticized the Justice Department and suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin would prefer to have Kamala Harris in the White House in November. Harris is pictured at an event in North Hampton, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.
In February, Putin endorsed Biden over Trump, saying the current president was more “predictable.” The two are pictured at the G20 summit in Japan in June 2019.
The indictment also went on to accuse RT employees Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva of implementing a scheme to shell out nearly $10 million to the Tennessee-based company to produce videos “consistent” with the Kremlin’s “interest in amplifying America’s internal divisions.”
Sanctions were also imposed on its top editors, Margarita Simonyan, and her deputy Elizaveta Brodskaia, after Washington accused them of trying to influence the upcoming US elections.
Simonyan was a “central figure in the Russian government’s malign influence efforts,” the Treasury Department said, while Brodskaia “reported to Russian President Putin and other government officials,” the officials said.
After the charges were announced, both Pool and Johnson issued statements on social media, which Rubin retweeted, saying they were victims of the alleged crimes and had done nothing wrong.
“We still don’t know what is true, these are just accusations,” Pool said. “Putin is a scoundrel.”
In his message, Johnson wrote that a year ago he had been asked to provide content to a “media startup.” He said his lawyers negotiated a “standard, no-strings-attached agreement, which was later rescinded.”
The indictment shows that some of the influencers were paid generously for their work. One unnamed influencer’s contract included a monthly fee of $400,000, a signing bonus of $100,000 and an additional performance bonus.
On Thursday, a smiling Vladimir Putin said he supported Kamala Harris in the upcoming US presidential election.
In response, the Kremlin said it would take retaliatory measures against American media outlets and accused the United States of purging any dissenting voices from the global media landscape and stoking fears among American voters about Russia as a mythical external enemy.
In February, Putin endorsed Biden over Trump, saying the current president was more “predictable.” The White House called on Putin to “stay out” of the U.S. election, but on Thursday, Putin, smiling, said he was backing Kamala Harris.
“First of all, (US President Joe) Biden recommended all his supporters to support Mrs Harris,” Putin said during a question-and-answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
“We’re going to do that here too, we’re going to support her,” he added with a wry smile.
“She laughs so contagiously that it shows that everything is fine with her,” the Russian leader said, as the audience laughed.
‘(Former US President Donald) Trump has imposed as many sanctions on Russia as any president has before him, and if Harris is doing well, she may refrain from such actions.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin is pictured with RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan in December 2022. Simonyan is one of 10 individuals and two entities sanctioned by the Treasury Department.
This comes after US officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington confirmed in July the existence of a Russian plan to install former President Donald Trump in the White House.
Putin authorized influence operations to help Trump in the 2020 election, while his 2016 campaign benefited from hacking by Russian intelligence agents and a covert social media effort, according to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials.
With the decline of traditional media such as newspapers and limits on direct advertising on social media platforms, influencers are increasingly playing a key role in politics and shaping public opinion.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties invited dozens of influential people to their respective national conventions this summer.
But because there are few to no disclosure requirements about who funds influencers’ work, the public is largely unaware of who is driving their online messages.
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