Foreign Agents Registration Act

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 Department of Justice (“DOJ” or “The Department”) recently released a letter, sent to Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and a bipartisan group of Senators a few weeks ago, in which DOJ expressed support for eliminating the Lobbying Disclosure Act (“LDA”) registration exemption to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”).

Continue Reading Department of Justice Reveals Support for Eliminating the LDA Exemption to FARA and Other FARA Reforms

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

The Department of Justice’s FARA Unit released several new advisory opinions today interpreting the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) and its regulations.  While the newly published opinions addressed a number of topics, the FARA Unit’s scrutiny of the activity of nonprofits was a prominent and recurring theme.

Many nonprofits, think…
Continue Reading DOJ Releases FARA Advisory Opinions that Scrutinize Nonprofit Activity

Last week, the Department of Justice published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), the first step toward a major rulemaking that DOJ says would “modernize” the current regulations, including by clarifying certain exemptions and definitions.

In a client alert today, we review key portions of the ANPRM and the…
Continue Reading DOJ Solicits Comments for Potential Major Changes to FARA Regulations

With a growing chorus of support across the progressive landscape, the For the People Act of 2021 has emerged as a key legislative priority for congressional Democrats in the 117th Congress. Envisioned as a “transformational anti-corruption and clean elections reform package,” the bill would enact sweeping changes to federal election…
Continue Reading Understanding H.R. 1 (Part 2): Changes to the Lobbying Disclosure Act and Foreign Agents Registration Act

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…
Continue Reading DOJ Announces Arrest in New FARA Case

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…
Continue Reading A Curious Advisory Opinion Reinterprets the FARA Exemption for Lawyers (and Resolves a FARA Mystery)

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…
Continue Reading Sen. Grassley’s Unsuccessful Effort to Pass FARA Reform Legislation Leads to Bipartisan Commitment for Comprehensive Review of the Law