Former Daily Caller editor John Griffing has a new project: Texas independence. He recently joined the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) as the organization’s communications director. The Texas secessionist group has some murky ties to Russia: members representing TNM have made multiple trips to Russia over the past few years, including with members of separatist movements from other Western allies.

Griffing also previously worked as the executive director of Texas’ Harris County GOP.

Former Daily Caller editor John Griffing has a new project: Texas independence.

Griffing, who did not respond to ThinkProgress’ request for an interview, says he worked as an “associate editor” with the Daily Caller. “He was with the [Daily Caller News Foundation], but he didn’t make it six months before we parted ways if I remember correctly,” Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Ingersoll told ThinkProgress via email.

Griffing is also no longer involved with the Harris County GOP, the local Republican party that covers much of Houston. “I believe he served [as executive director] about five or six years ago,” Harris County GOP spokesperson Vlad Davidiuk told ThinkProgress. “The last time I saw him was around that time.”


TNM didn’t respond to ThinkProgress’ questions, but the group has sent representatives to Russia multiple times over the past few years, mainly to network with other Western secessionists flocking to Moscow. Russia’s foreign interference efforts include fostering secessionist movements inside the U.S. and its allies.

These groups and their representatives — all of whom sought to break up their countries, whether in the U.S. or Europe — found a welcome audience in Russia at multiple conferences since 2015.

With Nate Smith of @TexasNatMov and the representative of Republican Sinn Fein of Ireland, and Irina of Russia on Red Square. pic.twitter.com/2n2SfN3pDV — Moved To Russia (@LouisJMarinelli) September 26, 2016

The Russian group bringing the Texas secessionists — as well as secessionists from California and Hawaii — wasn’t a grassroots force. The Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR) received funding from the Kremlin. The office of the AGMR’s head even featured a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin, thanking the group for working “to strengthen friendship between peoples[.]”

As ThinkProgress has previously reported:

At the height of Russia’s disinformation campaign to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, Texas secession was one of the most popular themes carried on fake Russian social media pages, from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram. The Russian “Heart of Texas” page even pledged to pass on supporter information to TNM, although TNM denied ever working with Russian trolls.


Griffing apparently isn’t shy about TNM’s association with ongoing Russian disinformation efforts. Just last month, Griffing appeared on Russian propaganda outlet RT, which identified him as a “Republican official in Texas.”

Nor is TNM isn’t shy about promoting Griffing’s efforts. In a recent post, the Texas secession group claimed that Griffing was recently “able to network” with Nigel Farage, one of the masterminds of the push for Brexit, as well as former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson.

The post doesn’t actually offer any proof that Griffing managed “to network” with these British politicos — nor does it mention any of TNM’s previous international outreach in Russia.