A number of prominent conservative influencers in the US have described themselves as “victims” of an alleged Russian disinformation campaign after the Biden administration accused Moscow of conducting a sustained campaign to influence the outcome of the November presidential election.

Tim Pool and Benny Johnson released statements on Wednesday evening addressing allegations that a U.S. content production company affiliated with them received nearly $10 million from Russian state media employees to release videos containing messages in favor of Moscow’s interests and agendas, including the war in Ukraine.

While the Justice Department’s indictment does not name the company, it describes it as a Tennessee-based content creation firm that operates six commentators and a website that describes itself as “a network of heterodox commentators focused on Western political and cultural issues.”

This description fits Tenet Media, an online company that hosts videos from well-known conservative influencers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and others.

The Guardian has contacted Tenet for comment. The company has not issued a statement or commented on the allegations. It has also responded to requests for comment from other media organizations, including the New York Times and CBS, according to their reports.

Tenet Media’s shows have featured high-profile conservative guests in recent months, including Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake.

“The company never disclosed to the influencers – or their millions of followers – its ties to (Russian state media company) RT and the Russian government,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. His department called Wednesday’s indictment the most comprehensive attempt yet to crack down on alleged Russian attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the November presidential election.

The Tennessee-based company posted English-language videos on several social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube, the indictment says.

Pool, a popular podcaster with more than 2 million followers on X, said: “If these allegations prove to be true, I, as well as the other personalities and commenters, have been deceived and are victims.”

“At no point did anyone other than me have full editorial control over the program and the content of the program is often apolitical.”

Johnson, who has 2.7 million followers on X, said he was “troubled by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that I and other influencers were victims of this alleged conspiracy.”

The Justice Department is accusing two employees of Russian state-owned media company RT of secretly funding the Tennessee-based content company to publish videos benefiting Russia. The Justice Department says the company did not disclose that it was funded by RT, and neither it nor its founders registered as agents of a foreign principal, as required by law.

RT suspended its operations in the US after major broadcasters dropped it following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. RT responded to inquiries from Reuters with derision: “Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US election.”

Garland said: “The message from the Department of Justice is clear: We will have zero tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic systems of government.”

The nearly 2,000 videos released by the company have been viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube alone, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, the company paid $8.7 million to the production companies of three of the online stars it recruited.

The commentators, who were not named in the indictment, did not know that they were being paid by RT, the Justice Ministry said.

In one case, the indictment said, one of RT’s employees asked the company to produce a video blaming Ukraine and the United States for a mass shooting at a Moscow music venue, even though the Islamic State had claimed responsibility, the Justice Department said. A company founder responded that one of the commentators was “happy to cover it,” the indictment said.

As part of the indictment, the Biden administration seized Kremlin-run websites and filed charges against two Russian state media employees, its most comprehensive attempt yet to crack down on what it sees as Russian efforts to spread misinformation ahead of the November presidential election.

The Finance Ministry also imposed sanctions on RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, and nine other employees of the channel for the disinformation campaign surrounding the elections. Simonyan is a “central figure in the Russian government’s malicious attempts to influence the country,” the ministry said.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report