EXCLUSIVE: Russian ‘Mafia Men’ And Ukrainian Actresses — Paxton’s Blockbuster Campaign Video Used Foreign Talent

Several scenes from Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign announcement video were shot in foreign countries, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Paxton released a two-and-a-half-minute-long video April 9 following his decision to mount a primary challenge to incumbent Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn. The video, which touts Paxton’s conservative credentials and accuses Cornyn of betraying the “America First” movement, uses stock footage shot in Ukraine, Russia and South Africa, according to a DCNF review of the video’s sourcing.

“Senator John Cornyn turned his back on President Trump,” the video’s narrator states. “It’s time for a change. Ken Paxton is the conservative fighter they couldn’t cancel.”

Paxton’s campaign is not the first to use foreign imagery licensed from stock footage websites to depict Americans. Candidates across both parties, including Democratic Oregon Rep. Janelle Bynum and former Republican Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, have raised eyebrows in recent years by featuring foreign stock footage in campaign materials.

The locations of the foreign footage used in Paxton’s video or those of the footages’ contributors were easily identifiable on most commonly used stock footage websites, according to a DCNF review.

The DCNF verified the footage was shot in the following countries by consulting with the videos’ directors where possible or a spokesperson for the stock footage website where the content is available to be licensed.

The Paxton campaign declined to comment.

The camera trails a woman running on a sidewalk as she raises an American flag above her shoulders. The video’s narrator declares, “Fight for our future. Join the Ken Paxton team.”

The woman — a Ukrainian marathoner — is not jogging in the United States, but along a street in Lviv, a city in the western part of Ukraine, the director of the footage told the DCNF.

A European pedestrian crossing sign with a blue background, though partially obscured from view, is visible under the yellow banner. The Ukrainian director told the DCNF that the road signs seen in the shot are common throughout his country.

The Ukrainian shot the video and uploaded the content to stock photography provider Shutterstock in June 2021. He bought the flag while on a trip to Florida in 2018, he told the DCNF. In Key West, he filmed the reverse image: a billowing Ukrainian flag on an American street.

Paxton’s campaign video briefly zeroes in on the silhouettes of a mother and her baby playing in front of a curtained window. The narrator boasts the Texas attorney general has “defended the right to life.”

The mother and child are Ukrainian. The director of the foreign footage told the DCNF the scene’s setting is Donetsk — a region in eastern Ukraine that is partly under Russian control.

The stock footage sites iStock and Pond5 list the location of the original video of the mother and baby as Ukraine. The director uploaded the footage to iStock in 2018 and has since left the region, citing the “difficult political situation” in an email.

Also in Paxton’s video, the profiles of four men retreat from view in a dark parking garage. The video’s narrator states that the Texas attorney general is “a fearless conservative who’s taken on the establishment.”

This footage was shot in Chelyabinsk — a city in central Russia near the border with Kazakhstan — in 2016, a spokesperson for iStock told the DCNF.

The Russian shot’s location and title, “Epic Mafia Men Walking Away,” is easily identifiable on most stock footage websites where the video is available to be licensed, according to a DCNF review. In another shot, the Russian actors are seen swinging baseball bats.

The footage belongs to a Russian multimedia company that claims to have the largest production studio in Russia. A Republican congressman’s campaign used footage sourced from the same Russian production company in 2018.

In another scene, students walk in a school hallway while the video’s narrator boasts, “Ken Paxton … will eliminate all the woke programs John Cornyn funded.”

The students are a long way from Texas. The footage was shot in a high school in Cape Town, South Africa, a spokesperson for iStock told the DCNF.

The Cornyn campaign hit Paxton for using “cheap stock footage” in a statement emailed to the DCNF.

“If Con Man Ken Paxton does not have the competence to ensure that his campaign announcement video isn’t using cheap stock footage from Russia, South Africa and UKRAINE, how can Texas conservatives be confident he can effectively represent 33 million Texans and fight to advance Trump’s agenda as John Cornyn has every day?” a Cornyn campaign spokesperson said in the statement, writing the word “Ukraine” in all caps.

Cornyn similarly referred to Paxton as “a known con man and fraud” on April 9 following the attorney general’s primary challenge announcement.

Paxton has repeatedly argued the Republican incumbent senator cares more about Ukraine’s border security than the southern border. He accused Cornyn of starring in a Ukrainian “propaganda video” in February and dubbed Cornyn “Senator Ukraine” in an interview with Punchbowl News.

“Don’t forget that two weeks ago John Cornyn flew to Munich to be the star of a Zelenskyy propaganda video aimed at getting tens of billions more of our tax dollars sent to Ukraine,” Paxton wrote in a post on X referring to his opponent meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy during the Munich Security Conference in February.

The bitter primary contest, already full of personal attacks, is expected to grow more intense as Cornyn and Paxton vie for the Republican nomination. Other candidates still may enter the race. If Trump decides to back a candidate, his endorsement could prove decisive.

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