Tom Nichols writes:

The United States of America is still a free country, and every private citizen has the right to speak to anyone, anywhere in the world, about anything. If the propaganda arm of an avowed enemy of the West calls and invites you to bash your own nation in public, you are free to do so. It might not be the most patriotic or sensible choice, but it’s your privilege.

If you also would like to join the Department of Justice as a United States attorney, however, you should expect that appearing on the state television outlet of a neofascist dictatorship and engaging in conspiracy-laden anti-American rants might attract some attention—especially if it seems like you’ve tried to hide those appearances from the U.S. Senate committee responsible for voting on your nomination. And if you’re an ordinary American citizen, you should certainly be wary of any aspiring Justice Department official who gladly contributes to Russian propaganda efforts.

Ed Martin is the Trump administration’s nominee to be the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. A failed political candidate and former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, he is now a right-wing podcaster and social-media figure—and a January 6 truther who believes that Justice Department lawyers are the president’s personal consiglieri. He has also, however, been a regular commentator on RT America, the English-language flagship for the Kremlin’s propaganda efforts until it was dropped by major content providers after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It has since gone off the air, but in its time, it featured Larry King, among some lesser American lights. (For example, have you been wondering whatever happened to Scottie Nell Hughes, who years ago shilled for Donald Trump on CNN? Me neither, but in watching Martin’s segments, I learned that she ended up at RT.)

Martin, according to The Washington Post, was a guest some 150 times on RT America and its sister outlet, Sputnik, from 2016 to 2024. Now, everyone can make a mistake; public commentators sometimes find themselves on outlets that turn out to be wifty venues, or unexpectedly paired with guests they might otherwise avoid. But to appear 150 times—occasionally partnered up for friendly banter with unsavory characters such as George Galloway, a pro-Putin British politician who was kicked out of the Labour Party more than 20 years ago for, among other things, encouraging Arabs to fight British soldiers, and who has long been accused of various extremist views—suggests a genuinely comfortable relationship with the outlet. (For the record, over the course of my academic career as a professor of national-security affairs, I was occasionally invited to appear on RT America. I always declined.)

Perhaps, one might hope, Martin agreed to appear so that he could be a voice of probity and reason in the face of Russian disinformation, exactly the qualities one would appreciate in a U.S. attorney. Not a chance: He was more often the source of conspiracy theories and anti-American accusations, all delivered with the kind of cheerful confidence that always translates well on television.

I watched several of his appearances, which are still available on RT’s website. One major theme emerges: Russia is usually right and America (at least when led by anyone other than Donald Trump) is usually wrong. [Continue reading…]