Miami-based media personality says he was duped in alleged Russian disinformation scheme
A Miami-based media personality says he was the victim of a Russian “scheme” to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election that is now the subject of a sprawling federal criminal case.
The Justice Department announced charges on Wednesday against two Russian nationals working for RT, formerly known as Russia Today, over an alleged scheme to “covertly finance and direct” a Tennessee-based media company to push Russian interests online through roughly $10 million in payments – nearly 90% of the funds in the company’s accounts.
The indictment alleges, without charges, that the media company’s founders knew their benefactors were Russian and still failed to register as foreign agents, “as required by law.”
But Dave Rubin, a political commentator in Miami who has recently championed conservative causes with the company, wrote on social media that he “knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity.”
Rubin is not named in the indictment. But his activity is consistent with the description of “Commentator-1,” who is listed in the indictment as a commentator having the same number of YouTube subscribers.
According to the indictment, Commentator-1 agreed to produce “four weekly videos that he would host and would be livestreamed by Tenet Media in exchange for $400,000 per month and a $100,000 signing bonus” – extraordinary sums in the digital media industry.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Rubin suggested he did not view the funding as suspicious and was duped by the Russian nationals.
“These allegations clearly show that I and other commentators were the victims of this scheme,” he said. “The DoJ has never contacted me regarding this matter and I have no intention to comment further.”
Rubin has been one of six commentators for Tenet Media, a company that describes itself on its website as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.”
The federal indictment references the work of six commentators for the company, named only as “Company-1” in the indictment, and uses the exact language of Tenet’s website to describe the company mission.
Announcing the indictment, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland noted the federal investigation was ongoing, suggesting that additional charges are possible in the case.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” he said.
