Foreign Agents Registration Act

With Election Day fast approaching, corporations face increasing pressure from both internal and external forces to make legal decisions about political activities. This can be a fraught area of law, with little understood, highly technical regulatory issues that vary significantly across jurisdictions. Corporate counsel should be mindful of common—and sometimes…

Continue Reading Avoiding Pitfalls on the Path to Election Day: Common Political Law Risks for Corporations in Election Season

POSTED IN FOREIGN AGENTS REGISTRATION ACT, STATE LAW

Over the past several weeks, legislatures in Arizona, California, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have introduced bills that mirror the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”). There has been a trend in the states to enact so-called “baby…

Continue Reading States Introduce More “Baby” FARA Bills

Today, Congress announced the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) for Fiscal Year 2024.  The NDAA is an annual bill that contains important provisions related to the Department of Defense and international security, among other things.  An earlier version of the bill contained two key provisions related…

Continue Reading Congress Removes Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”)-Related Provisions from Final NDAA

Last week, a bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators introduced the Retroactive Foreign Agents Registration Act (“RFARA”) in the U.S. Congress.  Led by Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the bill would amend the Foreign Agents…

Continue Reading Congress Introduces Retroactive Foreign Agents Registration Act in Response to Wynn Decision

On Thursday, the Senate passed two bills — The Lobbying Disclosure Improvement Act (S. 264) and Disclosing Foreign Influence in Lobbying Act (S. 289) — that attempt to increase disclosure of Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) activity through amendments to the Lobbying Disclosure Act (“LDA”).  The…

Continue Reading Senate Passes Two FARA-Related Bills

May 31, 2023, Covington Alert

The Department of Justice (“DOJ”)’s FARA Unit released several new advisory opinions in recent weeks that interpret the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) and its regulations. While the newly published opinions addressed a number of topics, the FARA Unit’s broad reading of the FARA triggers…

Continue Reading DOJ Releases New FARA Advisory Opinions Affecting Digital Media Platforms

*This guide was originally published in 2018 and we have updated it periodically.

January 31, 2023, Covington Guide

In 1938, Congress enacted the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”), requiring “foreign agents” to register with the Attorney General. As amended over the years, it applies broadly to anyone who acts on behalf of a “foreign principal” to, among other things, influence U.S. policy or public opinion. Until recently, it was a backwater of American law—and a very still backwater at that, with just seven prosecutions between 1966 and 2016.

That now has changed. Like the once obscure Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prosecutors revived from hibernation some years ago, FARA is receiving its close-up. Prosecutors have brought more FARA prosecutions in the last several years than they had pursued in the preceding half century. In-house lawyers have scrambled to bone up on this famously vague criminal statute, at a time when the nation’s tiny bar of experienced FARA lawyers can still hold its meetings in the back of a mini-van.

While cases related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation are the most salient examples, the renewed focus on foreign agents actually began prior to the Mueller investigation and has continued long after the Special Counsel closed up shop. A significant uptick in audits of registered foreign agents by the FARA Unit (the Department of Justice office that administers FARA), followed by significant staffing changes in the FARA Unit, and then noticeably more aggressive interpretations of the statute in advisory opinions and informal advice from the FARA Unit, all have signaled a sea change.Continue Reading The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA): A Guide for the Perplexed

There is near universal agreement among policymakers, lawyers, and lobbyists that the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) is deeply in need of legislative reforms to update the statute and bring it in line with modern practices. Agreeing on specific amendments, however, has been challenging, and several prior efforts ended with…

Continue Reading FARA Reform Legislative Activity Heats Up

The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing on Tuesday on potential reform of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”), the first FARA hearing by the House Judiciary Committee in over 30 years.

FARA is an arcane statute that requires “agents of…
Continue Reading House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Foreign Agents Registration Act Reform