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Federal law enforcement agencies have seized 32 Russian-backed websites that prosecutors say were designed to sow disinformation and discord ahead of 2024 elections and boost Donald Trump’s campaign.
Separately, two employees of Russia’s state-controlled media network RT have been criminally charged with allegedly launching a $10 million propaganda scheme that enlisted popular right-wing social media influencers.
The allegations revealed in warrants and unsealed indictments are evidence of Russia’s attempts to “engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country’s elections,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in remarks on Wednesday.
The scope of the alleged efforts “make clear the ends to which the Russian government — including at its highest levels — is willing to go to undermine our democratic process,” Garland said.
The aim of those alleged actions, he said, is “securing Russia’s preferred outcome” this November, according to Garland.
He added that “Russia’s preferences have not changed” from 2016 and 2020 elections, when Kremlin-backed campaigns boosted Trump’s candidacy.
“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power engages in political activities or seeks to influence public discourse,” he said.
Court filings allege that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies directed Russian public relations companies to promote disinformation and state-sponsored narratives, with websites echoing Russian disinformation and propaganda intended to suppress international support for Ukraine and influence voters ahead of 2024 elections.
Websites in the “Doppelganger” network also used misspelled URLs for legitimate news outlets that re-directed users to bogus news websites, according to the Justice Department.
Two Russian nationals who work for Russian state-controlled media outlet RT — Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva — were also charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors allege they relied on a Tennessee-based company and contracted with US-based social media influencers to target specific demographics and regions as part of a calculated effort to subvert the election.
That company — TENET Media, which is not mentioned by name in the indictment — includes a constellation of well-known right-wing influencers, including Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson, among others.
RT employees helped publish nearly 2,000 English-language videos on TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube, where they have racked up 16 million views, according to prosecutors.
The companies and influencers “never disclosed to the influencers or their millions of dollars its ties to RT or the Russian government,” and instead claimed they used a “private investor” who was in fact a “fictitious persona,” according to Garland.
“The charges do not represent the end of the investigation,” he said.
The Independent has requested comment from TENET.
In statements on X, Tim Pool and Benny Johnson — both incorrectly saying that the indictment was “leaked” — claimed that they were unwitting victims, under what the indictment alleges.
“We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme,” Johnson wrote. “My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise.”
In remarks last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that Putin and “his proxies” are relying on “increasingly sophisticated” efforts to interfere with elections, including “targeting specific voter demographics and swing-state voters in an effort to manipulate presidential and congressional election outcome.”
“They’re intent on co-opting unwitting Americans on social media to push narratives advancing Russian interests,” she added.
Russian-backed operations include cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns through state media such as RT and fake websites and prop social media accounts designed to amplify messaging and distort online conversations — largely targeting polarizing topics like Gaza, immigration and crime — without Americans questioning where they came from.
Kremlin-linked groups are also turning to marketing and communications firms to outsource those campaigns, according to officials. Two of those firms and their founder and CEO were hit with sanctions in March, with State Department officials accusing them of creating “a network of over 60 websites that impersonated genuine news organizations in Europe, then used bogus social media accounts to amplify the misleading content of the spoofed websites.”
FBI director Christopher Wray told reporters on Wednesday that the content on Russian-backed websites was “pitched as legitimate independent news when in fact much of it was created in Russian by employees who work with the Russian government.”
Kremlin-sponsored content is designed to “trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda,” he said.
Russian operations have “meddled in our society” and elections “for decades,” he said, but recent efforts relying on social media — with AI-assisted disinformation campaigns — are just “more tools in the toolbox.”
The use of “shell companies, fake personas [and] secret distribution networks” revealed the “hidden hand of the Russian government that deceives Americans,” he added.
After late attempts to combat Russian disinformation campaigns in 2016, US intelligence officials repeatedly warned members of Congress about the Kremlin’s plans to interfere in 2020 elections, which officials in Moscow dismissed at the time as “paranoid.”
In February, a threat assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned that Russia, China and Iran were preparing to interfere in 2024 elections.
In July, intelligence officials warned that Iran would seek to “coerce political leaders, undermine political systems, and shape the political landscape in ways that favor its national security objectives.”
Last month, federal law enforcement officials blamed Iran for hacking attempts that targeted the Trump and Biden campaigns earlier this year.
Microsoft also reported that an Iranian group was targeting American voters through propaganda-producing AI-generated websites designed to look like news outlets that plagiarized “at least some of their content” from US publications.
