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| Explaining to DOJ why the law firm did not register as FARA "Lobbying is attorney client privilege". |
You have no idea how much I want this redacted name law firm to be Perkins Coie.
But then again, I keep my expectations extremely low when dealing with government administration, so I will take just about any named law firm at this juncture.
The FARA Advisory Opinion, below, is a warning shot to the community of "Legal Geniuses (trademark pending) stop stealin' , which includes.....how ever shall I coin these activities.....?
- Offering an elected official (or staffer) money, whether it be a political campaign contribution or your basic personal inurement for doing what you, the lobbyist using money from foreign corporations, tells them to do, is still considered to be bribery.
- This includes the use of NGOs to facilitate the transactions, whether simple or complex.
- If you engage in any of the aforementioned activities, and do not register under FARA, you are automatically stripped from any "attorney-client privilege" and any immunity arguments you can find diving in the dumpster of your career.
I shall assume there will be a mad dash of new FARA registrations coming in the new few weeks from the legal community.*
*Please note that "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) is a separate and distinct class of individuals with licenses to practice law as an officer of the court on behalf of private interests from those I have identified as the legal community. Below, is the work of the legal community. For an example of the work of "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending), always remember, Perkins Coie Sucks.
Department Of Justice Posts Advisory Opinions On FARA.Gov Website
John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, announced today the public release of the advisory opinions issued by the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Registration Unit since January 1, 2010. See below, or https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara/advisory-opinions.
“Eighty years ago, Congress passed and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to combat the spread of hidden foreign influence in American politics,” Assistant Attorney General Demers said. “Today is the law’s 80th anniversary, and it remains a vital tool to combat this threat. To enhance compliance, we are making these advisory opinions available publicly and online for the first time. By posting these advisory opinions, the Department of Justice is making clearer how we interpret some of FARA’s key provisions.”
FARA, as amended, 22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq., requires persons in the United States who engage in specified activities as agents of foreign principals to register with the Department of Justice (the “Department”) unless they are exempt. Disclosures under FARA help to ensure transparency in the activities of foreign principals and make it more difficult for those principals to maintain secret their role in activities occurring in the United States. Within the Department’s National Security Division (NSD), responsibility for the administration and enforcement of FARA resides with the FARA Registration Unit, which is part of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
Pursuant to regulations that the Department has issued implementing FARA, potential registrants or their counsel may ask the FARA Registration Unit how the Department interprets and applies FARA. See 28 C.F.R. § 5.2. Such inquiries must be in writing, must pertain to an actual, as opposed to hypothetical situation, and must disclose the identities of the parties involved. Written materials submitted pursuant to such a request are treated as confidential.
The FARA Registration Unit has issued 49 advisory opinions since January 1, 2010, which are being posted on the FARA.gov website together with three other letters sent in response to requests for general information. The opinions and letters will be organized on the website by topic of inquiry or the aspects of the statute they discuss. Any proprietary information, including any information that would identify the parties who made the requests has been redacted. The FARA Unit will post future advisory opinions in a similar manner on a periodic basis.
In its September 2016 Audit of NSD’s Enforcement and Administration of FARA, the Department’s Inspector General recommended that NSD consider the value of making advisory opinions publicly available. NSD agreed with that recommendation and posted summaries of a few opinions on the website. With the public posting of a more comprehensive repository of correspondence, the Department has demonstrated its commitment to improving the public’s understanding of FARA.
“Eighty years ago, Congress passed and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to combat the spread of hidden foreign influence in American politics,” Assistant Attorney General Demers said. “Today is the law’s 80th anniversary, and it remains a vital tool to combat this threat. To enhance compliance, we are making these advisory opinions available publicly and online for the first time. By posting these advisory opinions, the Department of Justice is making clearer how we interpret some of FARA’s key provisions.”
FARA, as amended, 22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq., requires persons in the United States who engage in specified activities as agents of foreign principals to register with the Department of Justice (the “Department”) unless they are exempt. Disclosures under FARA help to ensure transparency in the activities of foreign principals and make it more difficult for those principals to maintain secret their role in activities occurring in the United States. Within the Department’s National Security Division (NSD), responsibility for the administration and enforcement of FARA resides with the FARA Registration Unit, which is part of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
Pursuant to regulations that the Department has issued implementing FARA, potential registrants or their counsel may ask the FARA Registration Unit how the Department interprets and applies FARA. See 28 C.F.R. § 5.2. Such inquiries must be in writing, must pertain to an actual, as opposed to hypothetical situation, and must disclose the identities of the parties involved. Written materials submitted pursuant to such a request are treated as confidential.
The FARA Registration Unit has issued 49 advisory opinions since January 1, 2010, which are being posted on the FARA.gov website together with three other letters sent in response to requests for general information. The opinions and letters will be organized on the website by topic of inquiry or the aspects of the statute they discuss. Any proprietary information, including any information that would identify the parties who made the requests has been redacted. The FARA Unit will post future advisory opinions in a similar manner on a periodic basis.
In its September 2016 Audit of NSD’s Enforcement and Administration of FARA, the Department’s Inspector General recommended that NSD consider the value of making advisory opinions publicly available. NSD agreed with that recommendation and posted summaries of a few opinions on the website. With the public posting of a more comprehensive repository of correspondence, the Department has demonstrated its commitment to improving the public’s understanding of FARA.
The Department’s regulations implementing FARA give parties the ability to make inquiries of the FARA Registration Unit concerning the application of the Act to contemplated activities and the Department's present enforcement intentions with respect to those activities. See 28 C.F.R. § 5.2. Such inquiries must reflect actual, contemplated transactions and cannot be anonymous. 28 C.F.R. § 5.2(b).
Below are links to advisory opinions that the FARA Registration Unit has issued pursuant to requests under 28 C.F.R. § 5.2 since January 1, 2010, as well as three opinions issued prior to that point (which were previously summarized on this website). The identities of the parties and any personal identifying or proprietary information have been redacted from the opinions. The FARA Unit will post future advisory opinions in a similar manner on a periodic basis.
Please note that these letters, and the guidance they provide, are based on the information submitted to the FARA Registration Unit. Nothing in these letters is intended to create any substantive or procedural rights, privileges, or benefits enforceable in any administrative, civil, or criminal matter. See United States v. Caceres, 440 U.S. 741 (1979). For further information please contact the FARA Registration Unit at FARA.Public@usdoj.gov or by telephone at
(202) 233-0776.
(202) 233-0776.
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