The U.S. Department of Justice today announced the arrest of an alleged agent of the Iranian government, who has been charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”). The defendant is an Iranian political scientist, living in the United States as a permanent resident. The Justice Department alleges that for years he has engaged
Foreign Agents Registration Act
A Curious Advisory Opinion Reinterprets the FARA Exemption for Lawyers (and Resolves a FARA Mystery)
Last week, the Department of Justice’s FARA Unit released a curious advisory opinion. The new opinion stated that it replaced an advisory opinion released by the Department in December 2019, and it revised the Department’s guidance on the scope of the lawyers’ exemption to FARA. As far as we can tell, this is the first…
Sen. Grassley’s Unsuccessful Effort to Pass FARA Reform Legislation Leads to Bipartisan Commitment for Comprehensive Review of the Law
On Wednesday, December 16, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sought, and failed to achieve, unanimous consent to pass legislation that would have granted significant new powers to the Department of Justice to enforce compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In objecting to passage, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said that the Senate should “take a step…
DOJ Releases FARA Determination Letters
The Department of Justice’s FARA Unit has publicly posted, for the first time, a set of FARA determination letters. A determination letter is the Unit’s formal opinion on whether an entity under scrutiny by the Department is required to register under FARA. As far as we can tell, the release was done quietly, without…
DOJ Begins to Move Existing FARA Registrants to a New E-File System
Following the Department of Justice’s announcement in March 2019 of an initiative to increase enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”), the Department began rolling out a new electronic filing system for FARA registrations in September 2019. At that time, as Covington reported, the new system applied only to new registrants, and the…
Interacting with the Government During the Pandemic: Compliance Blind Spots for Corporations and Executives
The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are reverberating in every sector of the global economy, from life sciences to transportation, retail to manufacturing, financial services to sports and entertainment. As federal, state, and local governments attempt to blunt the pandemic’s public health and economic effects, many companies are frantically working with government to seek the…
New Changes to Foreign Agents Registration Act Forms and E-File System
Following the Department of Justice’s announcement in March of an initiative to increase enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”), the Department has rolled out a new e-file system for FARA registrations. Notably, the new system only applies to new registrants, although the Department indicated that it will transition existing registrants to the new…
Florida FARA Case Leaves Troubling Precedent
On May 7, 2019, a federal District Court in the Southern District of Florida ruled that an American company, RM Broadcasting, must register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) for its agreement to broadcast radio programming from Rossiya Segodnya (meaning “Russia Today”), a Russian state-owned news agency. Although the decision…
Appropriations Committee Directs New FARA Guidance on Commercial Exemption
The House Appropriations Committee has quietly directed the Department of Justice to issue new guidance on the commercial exemption to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) with respect to state-owned companies. The directive came in a Committee report accompanying legislation that provides funding for the Department for fiscal year 2020. The report was approved by…
New Department of Justice FARA Opinion May Narrow the “LDA Exemption”
The Department of Justice’s FARA Unit appears to have signaled a significant narrowing in the scope of a major FARA exemption that is especially important to private sector companies, including U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations. The apparent narrowing of FARA’s exemption for those who register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act (“LDA”) appeared in an advisory…