By Joe Patrice
on September 6, 2024 at 2:00 PM

... Harmeet Dhillon, who served as legal advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign and most recently slapped her name on Elon Musk’s dumbest lawsuit, continues to absorb the federal indictment alleging a campaign on the part of Russian intelligence to fund Trump-friendly media and the subsequent charges filed against a former Trump advisor for laundering Russian funds to evade sanctions. Coupled with the potentially unrelated but nonetheless curiously timed memo from the Trump campaign warning everyone to stop talking and special counsel Jack Smith filing an “Ex Parte, In Camera, and Under Seal Notice Regarding Classified Discovery” notice in the insurrection case, everyone in MAGAland is just a little edgy about the bill coming due in the form of criminal liability and denominated in Rubles.

Dhillon recently took to social media to remind the extended MAGAverse that they should probably lawyer up before mouthing off to law enforcement ...

... based on the information that the DOJ already made public, a good lawyer would likely advise their new clients to RACE to the FBI and try and be the first cooperator past the pole. Say what you will about prosecutors, but they’re generally pretty consistent in spooning out their generosity based on who flips first.

... the uncharitable reading of Dhillon’s public service announcement is that we all know these folks tend to hire attorneys from off the MAGA lawyer usual suspects list. And, unfortunately, that’s a list with a tendency to dance well outside their practice area comfort zones and who are not exactly unlikely to tell potentially exposed individuals to stay quiet — to the client’s detriment — in order to protect “the boss.” Like, say, reaching out to a Trump-friendly lawyer who tells you to fire your counsel and convinces you to enter an NDA and sign away your rights against a Trump property — not as though allegations like that have become the subject of a lawsuit or anything! ...

https://abovethelaw.com/2024/09/trump-and-musk-lawyer-reminds-any-kremlin-backed-maga-assets-to-stop-talking-without-an-attorney/

Tenet Media is no more.

The conservative media network folded Thursday night, just one day after the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment accusing it of being funded by Russian state-controlled media ...

The indictment accused Tenet and its founders of receiving nearly $10 million from employees of Russia Today as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

The company’s founders, Canadian Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovon, have not yet commented publicly on the scandal. The fallout from the alleged propaganda scheme lost Chen her broadcasting gig with another far-right media group, Blaze Media, which has already wiped episodes of her podcast from Spotify and deleted her contributor page from its website. Blaze Media CEO Tyler Cardon told Semafor that the conservative anchor had been “terminated” ...

https://newrepublic.com/post/185686/donald-trump-tenet-media-russia-scheme

... Prosecutors alleged two employees of the Russia-backed media network RT funneled almost $10 million to six commentators through a company that appears to be Tenet.

Though the media company and the commentators went unnamed, their details match those of Tenet and Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen and Christiansen.

An NBC News review of Tenet’s many videos combined with details from the government’s two indictments illustrate how the company amplified conservatives who had already embraced many talking points favored by former President Donald Trump and Russia, in line with the country’s broader propaganda goals. The alleged tactics would represent an evolution in Russia’s previous attempts to meddle with American voters’ perceptions of an upcoming election, marked in 2016 by crude but effective text posts on Twitter and Facebook. With Tenet, Russia appears to have updated a decades-old strategy of laundering propaganda through seemingly independent actors by targeting some of the most popular creators of the polarized U.S. political system.

Still, the plan struggled. Tenet posted nearly 2,000 videos that got more than 16 million views on YouTube since November 2023, according to the indictment. The company was competing for attention in an oversaturated online space and among an electorate that, after years of consuming hyper-polarized content online, tends to seek and be served information that reinforces their own beliefs. As Tenet failed to rack up significant view counts even with its big-name commentators, frustrations spilled out from company officials that were captured in parts of the indictment ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/internets-popular-trump-pundits-ended-paid-messengers-russian-propagan-rcna169803

Russia, Iran and China are ramping up efforts to impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and down-ballot races, targeting American voters with an expanding array of sophisticated influence operations.

The latest assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies, shared Friday, warns that Russia remains the preeminent threat, with Russian influence campaigns seeking to boost the chances of Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

Russian actors, led by networks created by the Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, "are supporting Moscow's efforts to influence voter preferences in favor of the former president and diminish the prospects of the vice president," a senior intelligence official told reporters, briefing on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

"RT has built and used networks of U.S. and other Western personalities to create and disseminate Russia-friendly narratives while trying to mask the content in authentic Americans' free speech," the official said ...

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-adversaries-step-up-efforts-to-influence-results-of-next-election/7774626.html

Russia is ramping up its election interference efforts as Election Day nears, working specifically to help Donald Trump defeat Kamala Harris, using more sophisticated techniques including unwitting and even "witting" Americans – and trying to sway down-ballot elections as well, U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.

Senior officials heading the U.S. efforts to combat interference by Russia, Iran, China and other foreign adversaries provided those details in a 75-minute briefing with reporters.

The officials, speaking on background to discuss classified matters, said they could not comment on specifics including which Americans, if any, might be under criminal investigation, or what constitutes the kind of “witting” accomplices the Kremlin is using to help the former president defeat Vice President Harris, his Democratic rival ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/06/russia-election-interference-trump-harris/75103824007/

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 ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/06/7-republicans-tenet-media-russia-podcast/75091650007/

What can they do now to continue their underhanded propaganda attack on American democracy?