Foreign Agents Registration Act


The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a United States law passed in 1938 requiring that agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a "political or quasi-political capacity" disclose their relationship with the foreign government and information about related activities and finances. The purpose is to facilitate "evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons." The law is administered by the FARA Unit of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section in the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice. the Justice Department reported there were approximately 1,700 lobbyists representing more than 100 countries before Congress, the White House and the federal government.

History

1938 Act

The Act originally was administered by the Department of State until transferred to the Department of Justice in 1942. From its passage in 1938 to 1966, when the Act was amended, enforcement focused on propagandists for foreign powers even if it was not "for or on behalf of" those powers. It was used in 23 criminal cases during World War II. For cases not warranting prosecution, the Department of Justice sent letters advising prospective agents of the law.

1966 revision

In 1966 the Act was amended and narrowed to emphasize agents actually working with foreign powers who sought economic or political advantage by influencing governmental decision-making. The amendments shifted the focus of the law from propaganda to political lobbying and narrowed the meaning of "foreign agent." From that moment on, an organization could not be placed in the FARA database unless the government proved that it was acting "at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal" and proved that it was engaged "in political activities for or in the interests of such foreign principal," including by "represent the interests of such foreign principal before any agency or official of the Government of the United States."
That increased the government's burden of proof; since 1966, there have been no successful criminal prosecutions under FARA. However, a civil injunctive remedy also was added to allow the Department of Justice to warn individuals and entities of possible violations of the Act, ensuring more voluntary compliance but also making it clear when the law has been violated. This has resulted in a number of successful civil cases and administrative resolutions since that time.

Later amendments

In 1995, the term "political propaganda" was removed from Subsection 611 following the 1987 Supreme Court case, Meese v. Keene, in which a California State Senator wanted to distribute three films from Canada about acid rain and nuclear war, but felt his reputation would be harmed if he distributed films that had been classified officially as "political propaganda." The court backed up an earlier lower court ruling in favor of one of the film's distributors in Block v. Meese. The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, 2 U.S.C. § 1601, removed from the Act certain agents engaged in lobbying activities who register under that Act, which is administered by Congress.
An online search of FARA registrants was added by the United States Department of Justice . In 2004 the Justice Department stated that the Foreign Agent Registration Unit's database for tracking foreign lobbyists was in disrepair. However, in 2007, the Justice Department launched an online database which can be used by the public to search filings and current reports.

Scope

The Act requires periodic disclosure of all activities and finances by:
Organizations under such foreign control can include political agents, public relations counsel, publicity agents, information-service employees, political consultants, fundraisers or those who represent the foreign power before any agency or official of the United States government.
The law does not include news or press services not owned by the foreign principal. It also provides explicit exemptions for organizations engaged in "religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or of the fine arts," as well as for those "not serving predominantly a foreign interest."
Examples of organizations lobbying on behalf of foreign governments are DMP International, Flynn Intel Group, DLA Piper, Dickens & Madson Canada, Invest Northern Ireland, Japan National Tourism Organization and Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, Ketchum Inc.

Prominent cases

There have been several dozen criminal prosecutions and civil cases under the Act. Among the most prominent are:
FARA is one of several federal statutes aimed at individuals called foreign agents. There are federal statutes authorizing the exemption of otherwise covered agents Others target specific agents, such as federal legislation shutting down the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, DC, in 1981 and Executive Order 12947 which prohibits fundraising within the United States on behalf of certain violent groups opposed to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 prohibits, among other things, fundraising which is done to benefit foreign organizations designated by the United States as terrorist.

Allegations of selective enforcement

Although the act was designed to apply to any foreign agent, it has been accused of being used to target countries out of favor with an administration. This was stated by the Irish Northern Aid Committee in legal filings. The 1980s Federal Bureau of Investigations operations against the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador also allegedly was based on selective enforcement of FARA. It has been noted that during the same period it investigated CISPES, the FBI ignored possible FARA violations like Soldier of Fortune magazine running back cover advertisement to help the Rhodesian national army recruit fighters.
In the 1950s President Eisenhower's administration repeatedly demanded the leaders of the American Zionist Council register as "agents of a foreign government." In November 1962 Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's Department of Justice ordered the American Zionist Council to register as a foreign agent because of FARA violations alleging it was being funded by the Jewish Agency for Israel and acting on behalf of Israel. The Department of Justice later withdrew its demand.
The American Zionist Council was reorganized as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In 1988 former Senator William Fulbright in the 1970s and former senior CIA official Victor Marchetti, unsuccessfully petitioned the Department of Justice to register the lobby under the Act.
The 2005 case of United States v. Franklin, Rosen, and Weissman against United States Department of Defense employee Larry Franklin and American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy director Steven Rosen and AIPAC senior Iran analyst Keith Weissman raised the possibility that AIPAC would come under greater scrutiny by the Department of Justice. While Franklin pleaded guilty to passing government secrets to Rosen and Weissman, as well as to an Israeli government official, the cases against Rosen and Weissman were dismissed and no actions against AIPAC were instituted.

Proposed reform to FARA

There have been proposals to reform FARA to both improve enforcement of the Act and to modernize and better target its provisions. In September 2016, the Office of the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General released an audit of the National Security Division's enforcement of FARA. The audit noted that National Security Division officials had proposed amending FARA to provide the Justice Department with civil investigative demand authority to better enforce the Act and to eliminate the Lobbying Disclosure Act exemption to improve compliance.
Nonprofits have complained that the broad definitions in FARA can capture much routine nonprofit activity, requiring them to potentially register as foreign agents. In response, there have been proposals to amend the Act to define foreign principals under the Act to only be foreign governments or political parties or those operating on their behalf, as well as amend the current broad and unclear agency definition in FARA to instead mimic the Restatement of the Law of Agency, Third definition.
In July 2020, William Barr warned U.S. companies and executives that advocating on behalf of Chinese government interests may violate FARA requirements.

Chronology of amendments

Chronology of amendments to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938.