Washington political operatives are scrambling to register their work for overseas clients in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s high-profile prosecution of top Trump campaign officials for violating the largely ignored laws governing foreign lobbying, NBC News reported on Thursday.
According to an NBC analysis, between 2016 and 2017 first-time filings with the U.S. Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration (FARA) Unit jumped 50 percent to 102. In addition, supplemental filings — including details about campaign donations, meetings and phone calls — more than doubled from 618 to 1,244.
The FARA concept dates back to the late 1930s when Washington created laws to combat Nazi propaganda aimed at influencing the U.S. government. However, experts have long argued that FARA’s vague language regarding what constitutes actual work as a foreign agent has made the law hard to enforce.
That changed dramatically in October when Mr. Mueller indicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business partner Richard Gates on multiple charges, including money laundering and failure to register with FARA.
In December, former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, which involved false information about FARA filings for work on behalf of Turkey. Tony Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, also ran afoul of FARA issues last year, which led to him leaving the Podesta Group lobbying firm.
Before last year, according to NBC, only three indictments had ever been handed up for alleged FARA violations since amendments to the act were made in 1966, although none resulted in a conviction.
Congress has been eyeing FARA for ages. Last fall during a congressional FARA hearing, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, flatly stated that “it appears that the Justice Department and FBI have been seriously lax in enforcing FARA for a long time.”
The day after Mr. Manafort’s indictment, Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, introduced legislation that would make it harder for foreign agents to avoid FARA registration. The legislation is currently before the House of Representatives.
Across Washington, the increased attention to FARA regulations has stripped aside some of the Machiavellian tactics and secrecy that political operatives rely upon in their efforts to influence the U.S. government.
Recent FARA filings highlighted by NBC exposed just that, including documents showing that a data firm that worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and attracted the interest of Mr. Mueller’s Russia probe recently disclosed work it conducted to spread negative information about Qatar. The tiny Gulf nation was recently involved in a major diplomatic clash with its neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
SCL Social Limited, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, disclosed to the Justice Department that last year the UAE paid the firm $333,000 to conduct a social media campaign linking Qatar to terrorism. The effort came just as the Trump administration encouraged Saudi and UAE leaders to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar.
• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.
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