Are You a Foreign Agent? [More with McGlinchey, Ep. 21
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
On July 11, 2023, the UK’s Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (“FIRS”) became law. As part of the National Security Act 2023, FIRS requires registration of arrangements intended to influence UK politics at the direction of...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 January 24, 2023, a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced the Disclosing Foreign Influence in Lobbying Act in the 118th Congress. The group is led by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a longtime proponent of the Foreign...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
On October 6, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a Second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Second NPRM) in which the Commission proposed to amend its rules for the identification of foreign...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
Day 2 at the RSA Conference brought us an interesting discussion of fighting covert foreign influence while protecting free expression in the United States with panelists from U.S. Central Command, U.S. Cyber Command, and Red...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
On March 22, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed H.B. 90 into law, which notably amended the state’s lobbying law to now require “foreign agents” to register as lobbyists. A “foreign agent” means an individual who engages in...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
Rules Effective Now for New Program Leasing Agreements, Although Appeal is Pending - The FCC has announced the effectiveness of rules that will now require broadcasters to disclose when foreign governments or their...more