A former member of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation will reportedly head up a new effort at the Justice Department to pursue violations laws governing lobbying for foreign countries.

CNN reported Wednesday that Brandon Van Grack, who left the special counsel's office in October, will head a division of DOJ prosecutors dealing exclusively with Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) violations, according to John Demers, head of the DOJ's national security division.

Demers made the announcement Wednesday during a conference on efforts to combat white-collar crime, according to CNN, adding that the DOJ would shift "from treating FARA as an administrative obligation and regulatory obligation to one that is increasingly an enforcement priority."

He added during the conference that the Justice Department is considering asking Congress for subpoena power for FARA investigations, which the department currently does not have.

"That's something that we're taking a hard look at," Demers said, according to CNN.

Van Grack officially left the investigation into President Trump's campaign and Russian election interference last year, but a spokesman for the special counsel's office told The Hill at the time that he would continue to work "on specific pending matters that were assigned to him during his detail," without providing further information.

Trump's own campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was caught up in violation of FARA and plead guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of Ukraine along with numerous other charges.

Criminal prosecutions under FARA are rare, and the Justice Department inspector general released a report in 2016 that concluded that the DOJ lacked a “comprehensive” strategy to enforce the law.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/432979-doj-taps-former-mueller-prosecutor-to-run-foreign-lobbying-unit