As fallout continues over the DOJ indictment targeting an alleged Russian media campaign to interfere in the 2024 American election, denials from right-wing influencers abound.
Right-wing media personality Benny Johnson claimed in a post that his lawyers had negotiated an “arms length deal” for his company to produce content for the now suspect media startup implicated in the indictment, but Johnson says he was duped and that he was a victim of the alleged scheme — not a witting conspirator.
Johnson wrote earlier this week: “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme. My lawyers will handle anyone who states or suggests otherwise.”
A statement on the leaked DOJ indictment today:
A year ago, a media startup pitched my company to provide content as an independent contractor. Our lawyers negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated. We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s…
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 4, 2024
Some online personalities who are evidently hoping to meet Johnson’s lawyers assert that claims of ignorance and innocence by the content creators — the indictment alleges that Russia paid nearly $10 million to American influencers for pro-Russia content — doesn’t pass the smell test.
The Texas-based Democratic influencer (164K followers on X) who goes by ‘Texas Paul Schroder’ says he sells coffee mugs to augment his social media business — and that the motivation for his messaging is love of country, not Russian loot.
Below, Schroder proposes smell test criteria to consider when drawing conclusions about the influencers caught up in the scheme — is it possible, he posits, that someone being paid $100K a week doesn’t know where that money derives from?
No, no one gets paid 100k a week and doesn’t know where that money is coming from. These Russian assets knew exactly what they were doing. pic.twitter.com/EH64sebgqq
— Texas Paul Schroder (@Paultx890) September 5, 2024
Schroder concludes that it’s unlikely, saying “no one gets paid $100K a week and doesn’t know where that money is coming from. These Russian assets knew exactly what they were doing.”
400k a month plus a 100k signing on bonus!! pic.twitter.com/x2sdaGCK4u
— KT “Special CIA Operation” (@KremlinTrolls) September 6, 2024
A suggestion was made in the comments that the influencers may have remained willfully blind to the source of their income, and that any curiosity about the money’s origins was likely defused by an instinct for self-preservation, with knowing less creating plausible deniability. Schroder refutes this too, in the post below.
I understand what you are saying but nothing in business works this way. When you commit to a contract worth that much your attorney verify where the funding is coming from. You make commitments based on that funding. You hire people etc. They knew.
— Texas Paul Schroder (@Paultx890) September 5, 2024
Schroder’s post below is a virtual invitation to powwow with Johnson’s attorneys.
Tim Pool and Benny Johnson knew wtf they were doing. The suggestion they didn’t know they were taking big bucks from Russia is ludicrous. I suspect there will be many more just like them named in DOJ press conferences. 1)
— Texas Paul Schroder (@Paultx890) September 5, 2024