It may begin with an unusual media inquiry or a sudden spike in interest on social media. Just as often, it starts with a non-public request for documents or other evidence. Your boss or your staff have been accused of wrongdoing, and it falls to you to lead the response.
Continue Reading Handling Investigations of Members of Congress and Congressional Staff: A How-To Guide for Chiefs of Staffenforcement
Tax-Exempt Organizations: Understanding Executive and Congressional Enforcement Priorities
Tax-exempt organizations, including private foundations and other types of nonprofits associated with high-net worth individuals, have been subject to increasing investigative scrutiny in recent years. Last Congress, for example, the House Judiciary Committee and several other committees issued document requests to multiple nonprofit organizations, and in this Congress the trend…
Continue Reading Tax-Exempt Organizations: Understanding Executive and Congressional Enforcement PrioritiesAttorney General Issues Memorandum Regarding FARA Criminal Enforcement
By Robert Kelner, Brian D. Smith & Alex Langton on
Posted in Enforcement, Foreign Agents Registration Act
On her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a significant memorandum to all Department of Justice employees regarding the Department’s criminal enforcement policies, including a notable directive related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”). The memorandum provides that “[r]ecourse to criminal charges under the Foreign Agents…
Continue Reading Attorney General Issues Memorandum Regarding FARA Criminal EnforcementFEC Year in Review 2024
With a game-changing advisory opinion (AO 2024-01), 2024 started out with a bang at the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”). Other consequential opinions, enforcement actions, and regulations continued in the following months, challenging the notion that the divided Commission cannot find consensus.
In this alert, we highlight the FEC’s major…
Continue Reading FEC Year in Review 2024Recent Arkansas Sentencing Highlights How Easily Federal Prosecutors Can Target State Campaign Finance Issues
By Peter Koski, Robert Lenhard & William Sokolove on
Posted in Campaign Finance, Enforcement
What happens in Arkansas does not stay in Arkansas. Or at least not when federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section get involved.
A recent sentencing from Arkansas highlights the many options in DOJ’s toolkit to pursue “state-level” misconduct involving public officials. In the case of former…
Continue Reading Recent Arkansas Sentencing Highlights How Easily Federal Prosecutors Can Target State Campaign Finance IssuesWhen is a Treasurer Personally Liable for PAC Violations?
By Robert Lenhard, Elizabeth Upton & Kimberly Railey on
Posted in Campaign Finance, Enforcement
The Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) recently answered a common question for those involved in operating a federal PAC: When is the treasurer personally liable for violations of the rules on recordkeeping and reporting? In doing so, the FEC highlighted the importance of external oversight of PAC operations, and the value…
Continue Reading When is a Treasurer Personally Liable for PAC Violations?Picking Battles: The FEC and the Constitution
By Robert Lenhard & Zachary G. Parks on
Posted in Campaign Finance
Perhaps no citation has been more favored in Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) decisions over the past decade than Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821 (1985), a Supreme Court decision that gives an agency broad discretion over which enforcement cases to pursue. But there is a category of cases where…
Continue Reading Picking Battles: The FEC and the ConstitutionThe FEC Appears to be Exercising its Powers Without a Quorum
By Robert Lenhard & Peter Koski on
Posted in Campaign Finance, Enforcement
Over the past 10 days, the FEC has been quietly exercising authority reserved for when at least four Commissioners vote in favor of an action. Since July 3, however, the FEC has only had three Commissioners. This activity raises consequential questions about the FEC’s ability to act without a quorum,…
Continue Reading The FEC Appears to be Exercising its Powers Without a Quorum
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…
Continue Reading Interacting with the Government During the Pandemic: Compliance Blind Spots for Corporations and Executives
U.S. Department of Justice Announces Foreign Agents Registration Act Enforcement Initiative
By Robert Kelner on
Posted in Foreign Agents Registration Act
Covington issued several client alerts in recent years warning of a rising tide of enforcement of the once-obscure Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (“FARA”). Signs of this trend emerged long before the recent, high-profile Special Counsel’s Office investigation. Nonetheless, there was persistent skepticism abroad in the land, particularly among…
Continue Reading U.S. Department of Justice Announces Foreign Agents Registration Act Enforcement Initiative