Lauren Chen Breaks Silences, Announces Vindication From DOJ Probe

Last year, the Conservative media landscape was shaken up when the Biden Department of Justice opened a probe against Lauren Chen’s company, TENET, claiming that they were Russian assets who refused to disclose that. Lauren Chen, who had an on again off again relationship with Blaze Media was immediately canceled by them and TPUSA upon the DOJ announcement. Chen has been radio silent since the news broke. Now Lauren Chen has broken her silence.

STATEMENT 07/04/2025

This past year has brought trials I never imagined possible. There is so much I have to say, but for now, I will do my best to answer a question I know many of you have been wondering: “What happened?”

On September 4, 2024, two months before the General Election, my husband, two-year-old, and I were awoken early in the morning by 30 armed FBI agents about to break down our door. At the time, I was entering my fourth month of pregnancy.

The FBI spent the next four hours searching our house and interrogating us about our company, TENET, which licensed mostly right-leaning, conservative content. They took all our electronics and seized our assets. This included our life savings and revenue that had nothing to do with TENET, such as payments from contracts with The Blaze and TPUSA.

That same day, then Attorney General Merrick Garland published a press release which essentially labeled TENET a Russian propaganda operation intent on subverting American elections. The Department of Justice also unsealed an indictment on two Russian individuals that worked in conjunction with our company, but were not in US custody, or even in the country. This lengthy indictment of these individuals was largely focused on TENET – though most of the information provided was false, inaccurate, or out-of-context. There were also claims made concerning issues outside of our knowledge, and we regard those allegations with extreme skepticism.

Garland painted TENET as a covert Russian propaganda mouthpiece and our conservative-leaning talent as “unwitting propagandists.” The implication was that the Russian government was astroturfing support for President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, and that his conservative and rightwing supporters online and in independent media were merely behind him because they were paid to be. This notion was categorically untrue.

To be clear, my own commentary has never been shaped by any outside parties, despite working with several different companies during my time on social media. Furthermore, as a company, TENET offered total editorial freedom to our creators. We never forced or advised our creators to push certain agendas, nor were we ever told to do so by any third party. In fact, we often did not see the content our creators published directly to our platform until it went live. We encouraged these creators to do what they do best: speak their minds, boldly. To suggest that their earnest opinions are tantamount to Russian propaganda is not only dishonest, but a besmearing of views commonly shared by a huge swathe of Americans.
In any case, due to the political nature of Garland’s press release, our story quickly made international headlines, and we were falsely labeled spies, propagandists, and even traitors.

We wanted to set the record straight, but it immediately became apparent that any attempts to challenge the Biden DOJ resulted in threats of arrest, charges, and potentially prison. And so, out of fear of being separated from our children, and under the advice of counsel, we chose to remain silent until we could be sure that speaking out would not result in further judicial or extrajudicial punishment.

Though there were never any criminal charges, much less convictions, due to this widely publicized investigation, all of our professional contracts were promptly dropped. We were deplatformed from YouTube, TikTok, Discord, and Google. We, and even some of our family members, were debanked by several financial institutions. We were forced to move due to death threats. Our work- based immigration visa, which was torpedoed by the actions against our company, was not renewed. The Canadian government also seemed to have opened their own investigation into us following the highly publicized American case, and of course, we quickly amassed legal fees well into the six-figures.

In March of this year, due to high blood pressure caused by chronic stress, I was induced and delivered our daughter. Despite the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy, she is a happy and healthy baby and has been a light in our lives during these difficulties. Thanks be to God.

In April, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York informed our lawyer that the investigation into us and our company had finally been closed. This news provided us with some relief, but it soon became clear that although we weren’t criminals, the SDNY had no interest in restoring us to where we were before the investigation began, though they could easily do so.

There would be no similar press release absolving us of the very public and very serious allegations that had been made against us. There would be no help clearing our names with the Canadian government. They would not restore our visa status. And predictably, despite the lack of charges or conviction, our financial assets – all our savings, would not be returned.

We have lived humbly this past year, both due financial woes and public vilification. We have had very little certainty about what our future as a family will look like. Because my American visa was contingent upon our company, we had no choice but to leave our home and children’s place of birth. We are doing everything in our power to get a new visa and return home.

Sadly, we also lost some people who we believed were our friends. But more notably, we were blessed to have quite a number of our colleagues reach out with words of support. Some even published videos or posted in our defense. I am humbled to say that there are too many to thank individually. We have also received many kind messages from our audience during this time, and I cannot thank you all enough. Your messages of support, which have continued to come even though I’ve been gone from public life for a year now, never fail to bring tears to my eyes.

No criminal charges were ever actually brought against myself, my husband, or our company. The legal investigation has been quietly closed. Despite this, the road ahead of us is fraught with difficulty and uncertainty.

I wish this ordeal was over, but our struggles continue as we fight to correct the many ways that our lives were upended. To that end, as some of you have kindly suggested and offered, we are now seeking help to cover our still growing legal fees and our effort to return home. Any support is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to getting back to content creation, and our lives, soon.

Thank you.

Merrick Garland’s political probe yielded no results and was quietly closed, perhaps even sooner than Chen’s statement indicates, as Tim Pool, a personality involved with TENET claims it was closed in December. But despite being innocent, Chen claims the Southern District of New York has retained her assets.

Lauren Chen has launched a crowdfunding campaign, which has raised less than $15k with a goal of $150k, which in any case should hopefully for her sake last long enough with the heightened publicity for the Trump Administration to intervene.

Meanwhile, this instance of lawfare was just to punish Chen for being a dissident voice, not only in the United States but also in Canada. The Feds did not seize her assets because they had evidence of a crime, but the process is the punishment.

The fall of Lauren Chen is an interesting story where Conservative Inc. canceled her and went along with the Merrick Garland narrative and denounced her for making them look bad. But it turned out to be a false narrative. Lauren Chen was ultimately scapegoated is because many influencers wanted Lauren Chen’s market share and audience.