2 Russia-based RT employees indicted by US, internet domains seized in election influence probe

The Biden administration on Wednesday accused Russia of trying to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election by targeting American voters through state-run media and other online platforms as part of a campaign referred to as "doppelganger."

Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaking alongside FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said prosecutors have unsealed an indictment in the Southern District of New York of "two Russian-based employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet" that charges them with "conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act."

Garland told reporters that in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the editor-in-chief of the RT TV network "said the company had built 'an entire empire of covert projects designed to shape public opinion in Western audiences.'"

"We allege that as part of that effort, RT and its employees, including the defendants, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government," Garland said. "To implement this scheme, the defendants directed the company to contract with U.S.-based social media influencers to share this content and their platforms. The subject matter and content of many of the videos published by the company were often consistent with Russia's interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine." 

In a separate enforcement action, Garland said the DOJ has seized 32 internet domains "that the Russian government and the Russian-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country's elections." 

"As alleged in our court filings, President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including Sergei Kiriyenko, directed Russian public relations companies to promote disinformation and state-sponsored narratives as part of a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election," he said.

"These websites were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major U.S. news sites, like the Washington Post or Fox News, but in fact they were fake sites. They were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and in other countries. Internal documents of the Kremlin described the content as, ‘bogus stories disguised as newsworthy events.' This malign influence campaign has been referred to as ‘doppelganger.'"

The DOJ also said in a statement that "In conjunction with the domain seizures, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the designation of 10 individuals and two entities as part of a coordinated response to Russia’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election."

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When asked by Fox News Digital about its reaction to the allegations, RT said, "We certainly have a reaction. Actually, we had several, but we couldn't decide on one (we even thought of running an office poll), so here they are." 

"2016 called and it wants its clichés back," was among them, as were: "Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT's interference in the U.S. elections," "We gotta earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow," and "Somewhere Secretary Clinton is sad that it's not because of her." 

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Asked by Fox News' David Spunt how Garland would assure the American people of the seriousness of the situation, the attorney general said: "I'm sure [RT's response] was much funnier in the original Russia, but for us it's not funny." 

"This is deadly serious, and we are going to treat it accordingly," Garland said. 

Spunt asked Wray what he would say to other U.S. adversaries who try to interfere in U.S. elections. 

"Knock it off," Wray said. "As long as adversaries keep trying to influence and interfere in our society, and our democratic processes, they're going to keep running into the FBI." 

He continued: "We're going to keep calling it out. And I think nations around the world have started to also see the same activity. It's not the kind of activity we would expect from nations that want to play in the first world space." 

The Justice Department made RT register as a "foreign agent" in 2017. The agency said at the time that T&R Productions, LLC (T&R), a Washington, D.C., corporation, registered with the DOJ under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent for ANO TV-Novosti, the Russian government entity responsible for the worldwide broadcasts of the RT Network (RT).   

"Since August 2014, T&R has operated studios for RT, hired and paid all U.S.-based RT employees, and produced English-language programming for RT, which is both shown on cable networks across the United States and available on RT’s website," it also said. 

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Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Rebekah Koffler previously told Fox News Digital that RT and other propaganda abroad were part of the permanent cyberwarfare Russia wages on the West. 

"They don't just wage propaganda in a time of war, during a conflict," she said in 2022. "They wage it during peacetime. They constantly malign the United States and misrepresent foreign policy objectives… I'm just saying that tilts the level playing field towards Russia when we allow their propaganda channels to broadcast in an unfettered [way]." 

"RT is 100% a Russia government-controlled channel and its sole intent is to predispose the American population and wherever they are broadcasting towards the Russian point of view and to present the events on the ground as the Russians want the rest of the world to see them, so if the United States did not want that to happen then it would be appropriate to shut down the channel," Koffler added.