Lara Trump, Kari Lake, other notable Republicans appeared on podcasts accused of Russia tie
The media company now alleged to have been part of a Russian election interference plot featured interviews with prominent Republicans such as a daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, one of Trump's lawyers and a member of Congress, a USA TODAY review of its content reveals.
Tenet Media’s podcasts, broadcast on platforms such as YouTube, included appearances by Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump, who is married to Donald Trump's son Eric; Rep. Brian Mast of Florida; longtime Trump lawyer Harmeet Dhillon; and former Trump national security aide Kash Patel.
Other notable Trump-supporting guests who have appeared on Tenet Media include Republican U.S. Senate nominee Kari Lake of Arizona, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who recently endorsed Trump.
By Thursday night, several of the videos were taken down and replaced with a message from YouTube saying the associated account was canceled.
Paul Dans, who at the time was leading Project 2025, also appeared on a Tenet Media podcast days before resigning from his role.
None of the guests or their representatives provided comment for USA TODAY.
In a statement, YouTube identified the owner of Tenet Media as Canadian right-wing influencer Laura Chen, and said it had taken down the channel. “Following an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice and after careful review, we are terminating the Tenet Media channel and four channels operated by its owner Lauren Chen as part of our ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations,” a spokesman said.
Friendly interviews, partisan rhetoric
The interviews often highlighted Republican talking points. Mast, an Afghanistan veteran, criticized Democratic vice-presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record and accused him of "deserting his troops" in his National Guard unit before they deployed to Iraq. The episode was called, “Tim AWOLTZ CANNOT Be VP.” (Walz retired two months before his unit received an alert order to go to war, and he submitted his retirement paperwork five months before the order, to run for Congress.)
Three weeks ago, another episode blamed Walz for a nonprofit fraud scheme that targeted Minnesota's pandemic relief funds while he was governor – an issue over which House Republicans have since subpoenaed him.
“We’re big-time Lara Trump fans,” said host Benny Johnson, a far-right media personality who is advertised as “talent” for Tenet Media, when Lara Trump appeared on his program.
Trump spoke to Johnson about her efforts to replace many employees with Trump loyalists at the Republican National Convention shortly after she took over the national party. “You’re never going to get rid of all the bad apples, but we really do bring in a good group of people with us,” she said.
More: Putin jokingly supports Harris as US charges Russia with more election interference
Tenet Media paid $100k per episode
Lara Trump, Mast, Dhillon, Lake, Patel, Ramaswamy, and Gabbard all appeared on Johnson's show. He said Wednesday he was a victim in the Russian plot.
The Department of Justice alleges, although not using the company’s name in the charging documents, that unregistered foreign agents for Russia created Tenet Media as a way to influence the 2024 election and paid as much as $100,000 per episode to some of its commentators.
Host Benny Johnson says he was duped
The plot involved creating a profile for a fake private investor named Eduard Grigoriann and holding that fake persona out as the funder of the supposed news organization. Tenet Media's mission statement on its homepage and business filings with the Tennessee secretary of state match the information in the indictment.
“A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor,” Johnson said on X, formerly Twitter. “Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.”
Matt Christiansen, who hosted the podcast about the COVID-19 fraud, said on X: "At no point has anyone ever directed me what to say or not to say, and I would never agree to anything otherwise."
Russians say Republicans support their views
The DOJ did not name the beneficiary of the Russian misinformation plot, but "propaganda proposals" the department shared Wednesday in a similar case involving Russian interference made clear that the Russian government favors the Republican Party and would prefer to see Trump reelected over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
In that case, the U.S. government seized dozens of internet domain names the Russians designed to look like legitimate news organizations. The Russian documents also proposed disseminating information to swing-state residents, residents of conservative states, Hispanic Americans, Jewish Americans, and users of sites such as Reddit and 4chan.
Trump has publicly complimented Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the 2016 election, Russia interfered on Trump's behalf, the U.S. intelligence community found, although a special counsel investigation did not find evidence of a conspiracy with the Trump campaign.
Democrats have led the way in providing military aid to help Ukraine fight off Russia's invasion, but Trump, his running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and a segment of the Republican Party have criticized that funding. Trump has also said he would allow Russia to do "whatever the hell they want” to U.S. allies in Europe that don't spend enough on defense.
“While (U.S. Political Party B) are still in power, they are trying to maintain the current foreign policy priorities,” read the Russian documents, with the DOJ’s redaction apparently referring to the Democrats as Party B. “(U.S. Political Party A), still in opposition, have been criticizing these priorities.”
The Russian documents referred to Party B as “left-wing and far-left globalists who advocate for perversion of traditional moral and religious values,” and Party A as “normal people whose priority is to protect the traditions of the American way of life.” Another document said, “The (U.S. Political Party A) is currently advancing a relatively pro-Russian agenda.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 7 Trump allies who appeared on allegedly Russia-backed podcasts
