T.J. Harker writes for the Federalist about the political aspect of a recent indictment from the U.S. Justice Department.

On Sept. 4, the Department of Justice indicted Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva for their covert funding of domestic media outlet Tenet Media. The media outlet deployed $10 million of Russian money, according to the indictment, which was reportedly used by right-leaning talent to create content for an American audience. The talent included Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Dave Rubin, among others, who all appear to have been unaware of the funding source. 

The indictment is odd for several reasons. First, prosecutors would have known early in their investigation that the defendants would never set foot in an American courtroom, with extradition from Russia being impossible. This raises the question: Why investigate and prosecute a case that will never be tried? Second, the DOJ announced the indictment with an unusual amount of fanfare, going so far as to coordinate the announcement with simultaneous press releases from the Treasury Department and State Department. In my career as a federal prosecutor, I never once saw that happen. That’s not to say it never happened, but it’s rare. …

… The widespread and immediate media coverage of a case that was dead on arrival (from a prosecution perspective) strongly suggests that smearing right-wing news sources was the DOJ’s goal. This was accomplished by inundating the country with the regime-friendly narrative that Johnson, Rubin, and Pool were associated with Russian intelligence. They’re not, and the DOJ knows it. …

… These facts reveal that the DOJ didn’t bring the indictment to convict Kalashnikov or Afanasyeva (they’ll never set foot in the United States) nor to impede disinformation (there wasn’t any). Despite this, the DOJ announced the prosecutions to a global media frenzy in press releases choreographed with other major cabinet-level agencies that were amplified by the usual legacy media institutions. The association between conservative commentators and Russian intelligence was complete.