The Other McCain

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Benny Johnson Is NOT a Putin Puppet: Beware the ‘Russia! Russia! Russia!’ Hype

Posted on | September 5, 2024 | No Comments

To quote Sarah Hoyt, “The suspicion that this was a setup honeypot with full knowledge of our government is inevitable,” which was the first thing that crossed my mind when I heard about it. Folks, I’ve known Benny Johnson since 2007, when he was a college kid having fun at a Young Americans Foundation conference in California that I attended (as did Ace of Spades, Jeff Goldstein and other conservative bloggers). So when I saw him named in connection with what FBI Director Christopher Wray calls a “covert influence campaign,” I knew it was bullshit.

Two alleged Russian operatives, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, are “charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.” Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are said to have set up a shell company that funneled money to Tenet Media, which was created last year by YouTuber Lauren Chen and her hsuband Liam Donovan. Tenet Media in turn contracted with such well-known conservative personalities as Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and my friend Benny Johnson. Let me quote the DOJ press release here:

The Justice Department today announced the ongoing seizure of 32 internet domains used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as “Doppelganger,” in violation of U.S. money laundering and criminal trademark laws. As alleged in an unsealed affidavit, the Russian companies Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog, operating under the direction and control of the Russian Presidential Administration, and in particular First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, used these domains, among others, to covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election. . . .
“The Justice Department is seizing 32 internet domains that the Russian government and Russian government-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere in and influence the outcome of our country’s elections,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. . . .
“The Department’s seizure of 32 internet domains secretly deployed to spread foreign malign influence demonstrates once again that Russia remains a predominant foreign threat to our elections,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “At Putin’s direction, Russian companies SDA, Structura, and ANO Dialog used cybersquatting, fabricated influencers, and fake profiles to covertly promote AI-generated false narratives on social media. Those narratives targeted specific American demographics and regions in a calculated effort to subvert our election. Our republic depends on elections that are free from foreign interference, and we will not rest in our efforts to expose foreign malign influence operations and protect our democracy, without fear or favor.”

Does that seem clear to you? Because it’s far from clear to me. They’ve posted a 277-page affidavit in PDF, so maybe some of y’all can go read that and explain it to me. My two questions are these:

  • Question 1: What, if anything, did these “32 internet domains” have to do with Benny Johnson, Tim Pool or Dave Rubin? Did they even know about these sites? Did any of the “Russian disinformation” content from these “32 internet domains” actually make it into any videos posted by the aforesaid personalities?
  • Question 2: At what point did the feds get involved?

Because I’m with Sarah Hoyt on this hunch: Never in my life have I seen anything that looked more like an FBI “sting” setup.

Both Benny and Tim say they’re the real victims in this case:

Prediction: Some time next year, after the election, we’ll learn that the FBI was running this whole thing from the get-go.



 

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Category: Russia

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