The motion of tethered electrodes creates time-varying plasma currents. A similar current system has been studied in a large laboratory plasma with a stationary, pulsed tether. It is shown that in the appropriate electron MHD regime, the transient current is transported in the whistler mode. The current exhibits helicity. The insulated tether induces electron Hall currents which provide the cross-field current closure. The transient current increases with voltage and exhibits no saturation at the Langmuir limit due to electron heating. Superposition of delayed pulses emitted from displaced tether positions predicts that tethered satellite currents close along a short whistler wing rather than a long phantom loop. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union