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On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced one of four activists convicted of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government, who worked with and for the Russian government to aid that efforts to sow political disunity in the U.S. Activist Augustus Romain Jr., 38, of Atlanta will serve five years’ probation and submit to random drug screenings.
This case stemmed from federal investigators’ discovery that Romain and several associates worked with Russian officials to stoke political unrest and promote pro-Russian talking points in the U.S. from 2016 to 2022.
Romain, who is Black, was convicted in September alongside Omali Yeshitela, a leader of the so-called Uhuru Movement, and Jesse Nevel and Penny Hess, who are white. Romain and Yeshitela had both been leaders of an umbrella organization known as the African People’s Socialist Party until Romain, who uses the nonbinary pronoun they, left to form their own group.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution laid out some of the findings on Romain’s group and their work with a Kremlin-linked official named Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov in a recent report.
Romain left the group in 2018 and returned to Atlanta to form the Black Hammer Party, which they used to conduct often outlandish protests around the city, including an anti-vaccine protest outside the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 epidemic, and a demonstration with members of the far-right Proud Boys in front of the CNN Center. FBI investigators said Ionov funded a number of Black Hammer activities, including a demonstration at the California headquarters of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in March 2022 over its policies regarding content about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Justice Department said that in addition to protesting Meta on Russia’s dime, Romain posted Russian propaganda to social media at Ionov’s direction and sought Ionov’s input on a news release from their organization that condemned President Joe Biden’s support for Ukraine.
The other co-conspirators in this case are expected to be sentenced next week.
This case is a prime example of why voters must be wary of ostensibly radical activists whose rhetoric closely mirrors Russian far-right rhetoric. We know from a bipartisan Senate report on the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 election that Russian officials have taken a particular interest in targeting Black Americans with political propaganda. Considering a federal indictment filed this year alleges that Kremlin-linked officials have paid influencers to peddle right-wing, pro-Russian talking points, there’s no reason to believe Russia's efforts to infect the Black political discussion has been limited to Romain and their associates.