Then vs. Now · File No. 261114-880
Trump's DOJ once vowed to expose Russian propaganda. Now Tenet's founder is at Mar-a-Lago
Lauren Chen co-founded Tenet Media, the company at the center of a 2024 case in which prosecutors say Russian state TV secretly sent it nearly $10 million. On Thursday she posted selfies from a gala at Trump's Florida club. Trump's first-term Justice Department created an FBI unit to expose this kind of operation. His second-term Justice Department shut it down.
Every quote in this story (13) was matched word for word against its source. How we work
Lauren Chen is a Canadian right-wing commentator. On Thursday she posted selfies from Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's private club in Florida, with the caption "First time at Mar-a-Lago." She was attending the Citizen Journalist Gala, hosted by right-wing activist James O'Keefe 1.
Two years ago, Chen's company was at the center of a federal case about Russian money. In September 2024, the Justice Department charged two employees of RT, the Russian government's TV network. Prosecutors said they secretly sent nearly $10 million to a Nashville company whose details match Tenet Media, which Chen founded in 2022 with her husband, Liam Donovan 56.
Chen has not been charged. The indictment targeted the Russian funders, not Chen or Donovan. It does allege that the RT employees worked with the couple to steer the $10 million to Tenet and invented a fake persona to mislead a commentator about where the money came from 2.
Then: Trump's own Justice Department said Americans had a right to know
Exposing foreign propaganda used to be Trump administration policy. The FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force was created in 2017, during Trump's first term, to publicly expose foreign disinformation campaigns, NBC News reported. Rod Rosenstein, then the deputy attorney general, announced it to a standing ovation 3.
From Channel GOPWhitehouse presses Bondi on Kash Patel's enemies listPam Bondi · 452 plays · captioned, with the source named
The American people have a right to know if foreign governments are targeting them with propaganda
The Tenet case showed what that kind of work turns up. According to the charges, Tenet published nearly 2,000 YouTube videos that drew more than 16 million views. Some contributors were told the company was backed by a European banker named Eduard Grigoriann. The indictment says "In truth and in fact, Grigoriann was a fictional persona" 5.
NPR reported that one influencer was paid $400,000 a month plus a $100,000 signing bonus. Prosecutors also said one RT employee pushed the company to blame Ukraine for a March 2024 terrorist attack in Moscow, even though the Islamic State group (ISIS) had claimed responsibility 5.
The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government
Commentators who made videos for Tenet, including Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson, said they did not know where the money came from. Rubin said he and others "were the victims of this scheme" 6. None of them was charged.
Now: The task force is gone, and the door reopened
On Feb. 5, 2025, her first day as attorney general, Pam Bondi signed an order saying "the Foreign Influence Task Force shall be disbanded." NBC found the order on page four of one of 14 memos she issued that day. Her stated reason was to free up resources and end "risks of further weaponization" 3.
The same order narrowed criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA. That law requires people working for foreign governments in U.S. politics to disclose it publicly. Under Bondi's order, criminal FARA charges were limited to conduct "similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors" 3. Frank Figliuzzi, a former head of FBI counterintelligence, told NBC: "It's now a free for all for foreign intel services seeking influence" 3.
On March 19, 2025, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia led 31 Democratic senators in a letter to Bondi asking what had happened to the unit 4.
was aimed at responding to secret influence campaigns waged by China, Russia, and other foreign adversaries
Chen, meanwhile, lost her U.S. work visa after the indictment and left the country in July 2025, The Bulwark reported. On Christmas Day 2025 she announced that she was back in Nashville. She thanked Joe Rittenhouse, a senior adviser in the State Department's consular affairs bureau, "for moving mountains" to bring her home 2.
This Christmas I'm so happy to help correct the wrongs of the past administration
The FBI declined to comment on her return. The White House, the State Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to The Bulwark's questions 2. The New Republic, citing writer Park MacDougald, reported that Chen was also invited to the White House Easter Egg Roll 1.
What the record shows
According to court records, the federal case is still open. But The Bulwark reported that it had not moved forward in the year after the indictment, and the Russian operatives accused in it are still at large 2.
The pattern is clear. Trump's first-term Justice Department said voters deserved to know when a foreign government was behind what they watched. Trump's second-term Justice Department shut down the FBI unit built for that job. Then a State Department adviser helped the co-founder of a company prosecutors say was funded by Russia return to the country, and he called it correcting "the wrongs of the past administration" 23.
That matters because the main question in the Tenet case was disclosure. The influencers' millions of followers were never told that Russian state TV was paying for the videos, according to prosecutors 5. Thursday's selfies at the president's club do not change the legal facts. They do show how much the official attitude has changed.
The Record
- The Justice Department charges two RT employees with secretly sending nearly $10 million to a Nashville company that matches Tenet Media, co-founded by Lauren Chen 56.
- On her first day as attorney general, Pam Bondi orders the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force disbanded and narrows criminal enforcement of the foreign-agent law, FARA 3.
- Sen. Mark Warner and 30 other Democratic senators press Bondi for answers about the task force 4.
- Chen announces she is back in the U.S. and thanks a State Department adviser for helping her return 2.
- Chen posts selfies from a gala at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club hosted by James O'Keefe 1.
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Sources
- The New Republic, “MAGA Propagandist Paid by Russian Government Shows Up at Mar-a-Lago” (2026-11-13). newrepublic.com/post/218008/maga-propagandist-paid-russian-g
- The Bulwark, “Trump Admin Scores Visa for Founder of Russian Propaganda Outlet” (2025-12-30). thebulwark.com/p/lauren-chen-trump-administration-scores-vis
- NBC News, “Pam Bondi ends FBI effort to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics” (2025-02-06). nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/bondi-ends-fbi-effort
- Office of Sen. Mark Warner, “Warner, Colleagues Push to Save Task Force Combating Threats to Election Officials” (2025-03-19). warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warner-colleagues-
- NPR (via Alabama Public Radio), “How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos” (2024-09-04). apr.org/business-education/2024-09-04/how-russian-operatives
- Al Jazeera, “US charges RT employees over alleged secret funding of right-wing media” (2024-09-05). aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/5/us-accuses-russias-rt-of-interfe
Found an error? Tell the newsroom. Corrections are noted at the top of the story.
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