A Chicago high school dropout who became a far-right media star and interviewed former President Donald Trump on his podcast was paid $100,000 per episode for a secret Russian-funded propaganda campaign, a new federal indictment shows.
Tim Paul, 39, has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the New York indictment targeting Russian nationals, and says on his X platform that he was a victim of the alleged plot.
“If these allegations are true, then I, as well as other figures and commentators, have been deceived and become victims,” Paul wrote on Wednesday evening.
He could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
The son of a former Chicago firefighter, Pool grew up on the Southwest Side near Midway Airport. He hosts The Culture War Podcast with Tim Pool, which has more than 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube.
During a May 2023 interview, Paul said he dropped out of high school to focus on computer programming, skateboarding, and making music.
Paul first gained fame by live-streaming the Occupy Wall Street protests, and later worked as a reporter for Vice, an alternative media outlet that saw a meteoric rise but eventually went bankrupt.
As a podcaster, Pool has landed interviews with Trump and artist Kanye West, the volatile Chicago native now known as Ye, who made headlines when he left Pool during a well-publicized nervous breakdown in 2022.
The podcast is licensed by Tennessee-based conservative Tenet Media. The live stream is available on Tenet's YouTube channel.
On his X page, Paul, who now lives in West Virginia, said he retains full editorial control over his show, which “is mostly non-political. Examples include discussions of spirituality, dating, and video games.” He called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a scumbag.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging two Russians, Kostyantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They are employees of Russia Today, a state-owned, Russian-funded media outlet, according to the indictment.
“The Department of Justice has charged employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media organization, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messages,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The Department of Justice will not tolerate an authoritarian regime’s attempts to exploit the free exchange of ideas in our country to covertly advance its propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter is ongoing.”
Russia Today is accused of sending $9.7 million over the past year to a Tennessee-based company. The indictment lists the company’s motto as “a network of unconventional commentators focused on Western political and cultural issues,” which is Tenet’s motto. But the indictment refers to it only as Company 1.
According to the indictment, the Russians, using covert identities, directed Tenet to release hundreds of videos.
For example, after the March 22 terrorist attack on a Moscow concert hall, Afanasyeva asked one of Tenet’s founders to blame Ukraine and the United States for the attack, writing: “I think we can focus on the Ukraine-US angle… The mainstream media spread fake news that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but ISIS itself never made such statements,” according to the indictment.
The indictment appears to refer to Paul as “Commentator 2,” saying he agreed to license his audio files to Tenet for $100,000 each. Paul hosted the videos and Tenet live-streamed them.
Paul and another commentator were under the false impression that an international banker named Edward Grigoryan was behind the financing, but Grigoryan was actually a fictional character invented by the Russians, according to the indictment.
The indictment does not state the total amount Paul received for his content.
The indictment highlights concerns by the U.S. government and technology watchdog groups that Russia and other countries are playing an active role in trying to influence American thinking ahead of the November presidential election.
