Earlier this month, and following a string of recent bills introduced to reform the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Representative Ben Cline (R-VA) introduced the Foreign Agents Transparency Act (“Transparency Act”)...more
On April 23, 2025, Dale Britt Bendler, a former CIA officer and contractor, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from acting as a foreign agent while serving as a public official and mishandling classified materials. According...more
On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at increasing transparency with respect to foreign funding at U.S. colleges and universities. This move comes in response to what the Administration has...more
4/28/2025
/ Colleges ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Educational Institutions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Funding ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Higher Education Act ,
National Security ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
On March 13, 2024, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced the Foreign...more
On March 6, 2025, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, reintroduced the...more
3/10/2025
/ Compliance ,
Disclosure ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Foreign Policy ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Lobbying ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Transparency
On February 5, newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a series of guidance documents refocusing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) priorities for the new Administration. In addition to effectuating many of President...more
2/10/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Attorney General ,
Bribery ,
Cartels ,
Compliance ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Money Laundering ,
White Collar Crimes
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential memorandum entitled Regulatory Freeze Pending Review (Freeze Order). This action is unsurprising, as previous Presidents have consistently issued similar memoranda at...more
1/27/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Government Agencies ,
OFR ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Freeze ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Telecommunications ,
Trump Administration
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, recently sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) expressing concerns...more
On July 9, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI expressing concerns over U.S. college campus organizations with alleged ties to Hamas that may be avoiding registration under...more
10/14/2024
/ Colleges ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Hamas ,
Influencers ,
International Organizations ,
Israel/Palestine ,
Lobbying Disclosure Act ,
Muslims ,
Students ,
Universities
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed a petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for a rehearing en banc in the Steve Wynn case, asking the D.C. Circuit to reconsider U.S. v....more
On September 19, a group of Republican Senators led by Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID) introduced the STRATEGIC Act of 2024 to combat Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence within the United...more
On September 4, 2024, two employees of the Russian state-funded media outlet RT (formerly known as Russia Today) were indicted in the Southern District of New York for conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act...more
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
Former government employee Sue Mi Terry has been arrested and indicted in New York for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of South Korea. Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, released the...more
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), former Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has been found guilty in his federal corruption case for, among other things, bribery, obstruction of justice, and acting as a...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 Friday, June 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the lower court’s dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to compel casino magnate Stephen A. Wynn to register...more
U.S. Reps. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) recently co-authored a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for an investigation of a drone company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for...more
Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, are facing federal charges of bribery, money laundering, and violations of the ban against public officials serving as foreign agents required to register...more
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) recently announced that the Committee is conducting oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) administration and enforcement of the...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
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
Last week, a group of Republican Senators sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing concern over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its influence among student groups at American universities....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
10/26/2023
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Exemptions ,
Foreign Agents ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Foreign Governments ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Lobbying Disclosure Act ,
NGOs ,
Registration Requirement ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
US State Departments
Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, faces a superseding indictment filed in federal district court in New York alleging his involvement in acting as a foreign agent of Egypt and...more
10/16/2023
/ Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Agriculture ,
Egypt ,
Foreign Agents ,
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ,
Foreign Relations ,
Indictments ,
Lobbying