The U.S. Department of Justice, State and Treasury announced today sanctions and criminal charges in relation to claimed Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate public opinion ahead of the Presidential election currently scheduled for November.
Announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland, the claims, which some media outlets are referring to as “Russiagate 2.0,” include that two employees of Russian-backed media outlet RT conspired to commit money laundering and violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The details of the claims were also unveiled in an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York.
“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda,” Garland is quoted as saying.
As noted by CNBC, the indictment redacted the names of political parties and candidates but was fairly clearly suggesting that the accused Russians had sought to bolster former President Donald Trump and harm Democratic Party efforts.
The two accused RT employees – Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva – are said to have implemented a scheme to hire a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate pro-Russian content. The company is then alleged to have contracted with another company to pay social media influencers to share content on their platforms.
The sponsored content allegedly pushed pro-Russian narratives and allegedly sought to amplify U.S. domestic divisions “in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine,” Garland said.
In addition to the charges against the Russians, the Department of Justice also announced that it had seized 32 domain names that were allegedly being used to influence the U.S. election.
“The Justice Department’s message is clear: We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Garland also said. “We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia, Iran, as well as China or any other foreign malign actor, interfere in elections and undermine our members.”
The claims come as it’s an open fact that the Democratic Party and the Harris Campaign is paying millions to influencers to push their own message. As noted by Reason in August, those influencers are supposed to disclose that they are being paid to push a message and yet many are not doing so. Apparently, breaking U.S. campaign laws is fine as long as the message is one approved by those in power.