dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

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Washington's Foreign-Influence Racket: A Clear and Present Muddle

Among the forgotten and ignored laws revived during the Trump era such as the Logan Act and "emoluments clause," none has been used more effectively against the president's allies than the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In August, Special Counsel Robert Mueller got Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to plead guilty to violating the statute - becoming only the fourth defendant found guilty of a criminal FARA violation since 1966.

Michael Flynn, the retired three-star general who served briefly as Trump's White House national security adviser, also appears to have violated FARA while representing Turkey, though Mueller charged him only with lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Two of Flynn's former associates have also been charged in Virginia with FARA violations regarding their work for Turkey. Because these activities had nothing to do with Trump or Russia, many commentators have focused on Mueller's use of the law to squeeze potential witnesses against the president. But these cases also spotlight one of the nation's most ambiguous and widely flouted laws. Mueller's effort to regulate foreign influence points up how Washington often breaks the rules it makes. The capital is awash in foreign cash - the world hub of lobbying and influence peddling, where former senior U.S. officials, or those between jobs, stand to profit from their prestige and connections. Since 1938, anyone representing a foreign government has been required to register under FARA. But the law was often ignored until 2016 when questions about Russian influence came to dominate the presidential campaign.

It was this attention, rather than a surge in foreign influence peddling, that is most responsible for the 50 percent jump in first-time FARA registrations in 2017, according to an NBC report. "I'd like to believe everyone is always eager to be in compliance," said Claudia Hrvatin, an attorney with King & spalding LLP in Washington, D.C., who regularly counsels clients on compliance with FARA. "But I know that the recent uptick is due to new attention to the alleged infiltration of foreign influence in Washington." Even with the new scrutiny, it appears that most Beltway influencers still aren't registering. "When you look at the numbers of primary registrants, short-form registrants, and foreign principals," said a lawyer who works on FARA issues, "the numbers just don't pass the smell test."

Close to publication time, there were 429 active registrants listed on the FARA website, which is about the same number of lobbyists registered in the state of Vermont. Some represent smaller boutique interests, like the Aruba Tourism Authority; others, major Washington firms, like APCO, representing a range of foreign principals. But those listed on the website don't present a full picture of what's really going on. "Lots of people think that's the extent of foreign influence in Washington," says one lobbyist, "but that's just the tip of iceberg."

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/01/17/foreign_influence-peddling_in_dc_a_clear_and_present_muddle.html