Are You a Foreign Agent? [More with McGlinchey, Ep. 21
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to update regulations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA) on January 2, 2025. If adopted, DOJ’s proposed changes would...more
After years of suggesting that modifications were in the works, the Department of Justice recently proposed drastic changes to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) that would, among other things, profoundly limit one of...more
On December 20, 2024, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a long-awaited notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to revise regulations under FARA, three years after an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking sought input on...more
For the first time in nearly 30 years, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) proposes to materially revise the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). On December 19, 2024, DOJ issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)...more
Introduction - On December 20, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its long-awaited proposed amendments to the regulations adopted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in a Notice of Proposed...more
On November 18, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit published an advisory opinion that appears to severely narrow the statute’s most important exemptions. In the opinion, the...more
On Tuesday, September 3, 2024, Linda Sun, a former high-ranking official in New York State’s government, was arrested in Brooklyn and charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for allegedly acting as...more
On July 10, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to present a briefing on DOJ’s strategy to combat Beijing’s...more
On June 10, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a Second Report and Order (Second R&O) that amends the Commission’s foreign sponsorship identification rules (FSID Rules). As explained in...more
Aggressive enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) continued last year, and that trend shows no signs of receding in 2024. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2023 filed its first affirmative civil...more
With recent high-profile prosecutions continuing to draw attention to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and related political laws, and a number of notable announcements by Department of Justice (DOJ) officials at a...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) started 2024 off with a major Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) enforcement announcement. Just last week, Barry Bennett and Douglas Watts, two longtime political consultants with deep...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently provided fresh insights into upcoming regulatory changes to key Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) exemptions and discussed new areas of concern. These insights were shared at...more
On October 3, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) FARA Unit published a number of new advisory opinions (AOs) offering guidance and further insight on the Department’s interpretation of certain FARA registration triggers and...more
In an advisory opinion released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit, DOJ adopts a potentially expansive interpretation of FARA that could require online networks,...more
Late last month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its filing of a complaint charging Russian national Vladimirovich Cherkasov with several counts, including conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian...more
On October 12, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the civil Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) enforcement action against casino developer and former Republican National Committee...more
When considering who must register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA” or “the Act”), one normally thinks of individuals, law firms, or marketing firms, the typical kinds of agents that must register for...more
On October 12, 2022, a federal district judge in the District of Columbia, Judge James E. Boasberg, dismissed a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) civil complaint against businessman Steve Wynn, which sought to compel Wynn to...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) exceeded its statutory authority in requiring, as part of a new foreign sponsorship...more
On June 7, 2022, the media published a search warrant application seeking access to the electronic communications of a retired four-star Marine Corps general, General John R. Allen, in a criminal investigation into potential...more
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) determined approach to identifying violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) shows no signs of slowing down. An inadvertently disclosed warrant revealed that John Allen, a...more
On June 7, 2022, an affidavit inadvertently made public details of an investigation into retired General John R. Allen for allegedly failing to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) after acting as an agent...more
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil enforcement action seeking to compel U.S. businessman Steve Wynn to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as an agent of the Chinese...more
The Foreign Agents Registration Act was put under the microscope recently during a hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. As explained in a previous post, FARA...more