In today’s Vatnik Soup, our guest chef @Martinlaineolen shows how Pearson Sharp, a correspondent for pro-Trump TV channel One America News (OAN or OANN), collaborated with a Russian intelligence asset to produce pro-Russian propaganda for MAGA audiences.

The evidence comes from hacked files belonging to John Mark Dougan, a former US Marine turned Russian asset. The hack confirms that he carried out tasks for FSB and GRU officers.

The Insider has already published a great piece on this:

Johnny on the spot: A hack of ex-Marine-turned-defector John Dougan’s messages reveals the rise and fall of a Russian disinformation asset

Dougan wanted to destroy Ukrainians. The GRU had to calm him down: he should be a “cyber soldier”.

Dougan’s ties to the GRU and its disinformation project Storm-1516 have been known for years. But his hacked chats show that he had a close relationship with OAN “foreign correspondent” Pearson Sharp.

They exchanged hundreds of messages on Telegram and Signal in 2024–2026.

Sharp knew about Dougan’s background: they discussed allegations about his ties to Russian intelligence.

“Better a Russian spy than a Democrat”, Pearson told Dougan as they discussed an upcoming WaPo article about Dougan’s ties to the GRU, Russian military intelligence.

Classic MAGA attitude.

Sharp gave Dougan (and Russian intelligence) access to American MAGA audiences through OAN.

For example, Sharp and OAN aired a Russian propaganda clip about Azovstal featuring Dougan and Darya Dugina.

Dougan denied his intelligence ties, but the leak confirms them. He also denied receiving a medal from Vladimir Putin.

Pearson Sharp replied: “I'd take a medal from Putin, would mean a lot more than a medal from Biden”.

After the famous Ukrainian Spiderweb drone operation in June 2025, which destroyed dozens of Russian bombers, Dougan explained that it was not that bad, according to his friend in the FSB.

Sharp replied: “Well that's good to hear.”

“Spiderweb”

In March 2025, Dougan invites OAN to Russia.

Dougan: “There is a journalist organization here that would like to sponsor a trip […] to come visit Kursk”

“Holy shit really?”

“They would pay for 3 journalists from OANN”

“I would honestly LOVE to do that.”

Dougan promises Sharp a meeting with Sergei Lavrov.

Sharp name-drops Trump’s former nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, who covered Pearson’s Russia trip on OAN.

“He [Gaetz] said Lavrov would be the number one reason to go.”

Matt Gaetz

“My boss is fully supportive”, Pearson noted as he agreed to travel to Russia and the occupied territories (illegally).

He seems obsessed with interviewing dictator Putin in many messages.

“Do you think there's a chance of interviewing Putin or Lavrov or anyone higher up in the government?”

Dougan name-drops Aleksandr Dugin, the fascist-imperialist and a personal acquaintance of his.

“He's an incredible man”, Pearson says. He wants to interview Dugin too.

Aleksandr Dugin

In September 2025, Pearson arrives in Moscow and plans to travel (illegally) to Russian-occupied Donbas.

As he arrives, he shares that Lavrov is interested in the interview.

He gets very excited.

“This is huge man!”

Pearson also claimed to have secured an interview with Dugin. Just after that, he met up with Dougan, had a lovely dinner with the Russian intelligence asset and did a whole photo session in Moscow’s Red Square.

The leaked correspondence exposes a MAGA journalist whose loyalty to Putin trumped any commitment to the truth. Sharp eagerly collaborated with a Russian intelligence asset and used his OAN platform to serve the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.

Whenever you see some Western journalist doing reports from Russian-occupied territories, you can be sure Russian intelligence had a hand in it.

Analysis: How Russia uses Western reporters to launder propaganda

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