Public Citizen Statement on Lobbying by Foreign Agents

On her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum scaling back the disclosure requirements of foreign lobbying under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The memo reads in part: “Recourse to criminal charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and 18 U.S.C. § 951 shall be limited to instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.”

Craig Holman, Ph.D., Government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen issued the following statement:

“Bondi’s memo scaling back FARA to apply criminal prosecutions only in cases similar to foreign espionage gravely undermines the very purpose of the law. Laws against espionage are already on the books. FARA is a disclosure law, not an anti-espionage law. Its sole purpose is to inform the public of any efforts by foreign governments to influence U.S. domestic or foreign policy or public opinion generally. It does not ban lobbying efforts by foreign governments. The law just lets us know who is speaking and what they are trying to achieve.

“It is not uncommon for foreign agents to conceal their efforts through nondescript nonprofits, secretly laundering foreign money. Two such foreign agents just last year pleaded guilty to doing exactly that on behalf of Qatar. Public Citizen on Feb. 4 asked the FARA Unit to investigate another incident in which FBI nominee Kash Patel worked for Qatar but failed to disclose it.

“The efforts by foreign agents to evade disclosure are numerous. FARA needs stricter enforcement, not less.”