The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)—a formerly obscure federal law designed to help the government monitor foreign influence in the United States—is obscure no longer. In 2023, cases abound: a charge lodged against a sitting U.S. senator for conspiring to help Egypt maintain its halal food export monopoly; increased scrutiny regarding foreign contributions to non-profit and cultural institutions; and a Grammy award-winning musician who lobbied on behalf of the Chinese government.

There also have been a fair number of criminal enforcement failures in this area. This is due to the Hobson’s choice embedded in the statute: the extreme sanction of criminal enforcement or no real enforcement at all, without a meaningful civil middle ground. This lack of calibrated enforcement options has led to a series of grim FARA tales.

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