Foreign Lobbying

Foreign lobbying is very much in the news today:

• Lobbying firms drop Saudi Arabia
• But not all of them...

The reason for FARA:





FARA HOME

The LDA EXCEPTION  Private entities like companies and nonprofits that would otherwise be required to follow FARA registration requirements may choose to instead register as a lobbyist with the House Clerk's Office and Secretary of the Senate so long as the agent has engaged in at least some lobbying activities that fall under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA).

The LDA exemption is not available to agents of a foreign government or political party, or if the "principal beneficiary" of the activities is a foreign government or political party.

Alternative database from -- where else -- Open Secrets

Silverstein

• Lobbying for rebels
• Turkmenistan:  Still Bad
• APCO responds to Silverstein (But APCO has worked for Kazakhstan)

Media

• Planting op-eds
• Open, disclosed ads
• Covert buys of social media
• State-run networks:  
• Al Jazeera America
• RT (epic fail)

Flattering interviewees (an actual email to yours truly):

Dear John , 

I hope all is well. 

 I would like to introduce myself again. I would  like to introduce myself.  My name is XXX  I’m an international producer for Russian Television -  Channel One  that based in Moscow, Russia. We also have offices in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles.  “Chanel One” is a number one broadcasting company in Russia and also very popular in Russian Community around the world.  We have over 250 million audience in 190 Countries.  Channel One is as big in Russia as CNN and FOX in US.

We have been working on our weekly news show "Sunday times" about Donald Trump's meeting with Putin. Our network's CEO Mr. Ernst asked me to contact you and include you in our show. He really would like to have you as a part of our show. You opinion is very important for Russian audience.
...

You are very well known in Russia. Russian politicians and regular people look up to you as a peer where they watch your interviews and follow you on social media for inspiring messages. It would be such an honor and  pleasure to meet you in person and film an interview with you. 

Other Strategies and tactics

• Policymaker outreach
• Plying staff with talking points
• Coalition support -- more on Thursday
• Networking and the National Prayer Breakfast 
• Think Tanks

From POGO

Manafort and FARA