Farewell To FARA
Farewell To FARA
Mark Wauck
What do you do with a law that’s in your way when you’re charged with enforcing it? Those charged with enforcing laws belong to the executive branch. They can’t repeal laws. However, at the higher levels—say at the Attorney General level—what they can do is rewrite regulations and, in particular, prosecutorial guidance to emasculate enforcement of the offending law. Many readers who are unfamiliar with FARA—the Foreign Agents Registration Act—will be inclined to simply say, Good Riddance! That inclination will be based upon the abuses of FARA during the Russia Hoax—abuses that had no connection to the intent of FARA, which is simply to require those who work for foreign powers in the United States to register as agents of those foreign powers. Can we agree that throwing the baby out with the bath water isn’t a solution to the problem of abuse of a law for political purposes? Requiring politicians and media figures to register as foreign agents when they take direction from a foreign power, are under the control of a foreign power, receive money from a foreign power—that remains a laudable goal.
Would that what’s going on were simply an overreaction to abuses. It’s not. It’s something far more nefarious.
OK, now we switch gears briefly—but not really. Bear with me.
A week or so ago Ron Unz wrote one of his briefer articles, which begins as an examination of the whole tariff and trade war mess and the AI bubble:
Much or even most of what Unz writes on that topic—and he actually does retract that label of “Mad Emperor” later in his article—will be familiar to regular readers. Unz even cites several of the sources I used earlier. Nevertheless, as always, it’s well written and informative. From there—foreign trade, stock market bubbles—Unz pivots to domestic politics, specifically to what he regards as abusive prosecutions or threats directed at Trump’s enemies. If you’re like me, you won’t be feeling any sympathy for James Comey, for many reasons. If you take my recommendation and read Unz’s article, you’ll take what he has to say on that score with a generous dose of salt. You might, instead, enjoy reading a knowledgeable legal guy’s views on the Comey case—Jonathan Turley. I’ll quote Turley’s opening as a teaser:
Hail Mary Play: Comey Reportedly Will Raise Three Challenges to Block his Prosecution
James Comey made history this week by standing in the dock and entering a not guilty plea as the first FBI Director ever indicted in the history of the country. Comey hopes to be spared the added ignoble distinction of a trial scheduled for 2026. He and his counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, are reportedly going to seek a dismissal under three primary challenges: vindictive prosecution, selective prosecution, and challenging the status of the acting U.S. Attorney, Lindsey Halligan. I wanted to briefly address these claims, including the one that has the most credibility.
As a threshold matter, there is a particular irony in the date selected for the Comey trial: January 5, 2026. That is the anniversary of a notorious briefing of President Barack Obama that laid the foundation for the Russian collusion investigation that Comey would push as director. The intelligence community had already debunked the infamous Steele Dossier, secretly funded and disseminated by the Clinton campaign. Indeed, an intelligence community assessment had found no evidence of a material impact of Russian actors on the 2016 election. Top officials immediately moved to bury the report and to order a new report by a carefully selected group in the final days of the Obama Administration. The result was a report that was ultimately leaked to the media suggesting that there was evidence of Russian interference with the election in support of Trump. Comey and others would use the report to justify what would later become the special counsel’s investigation that effectively derailed Trump’s first term.
Comey is now scheduled to answer for alleged lies and leaks on the ninth anniversary of that meeting.
As always, I don’t necessarily agree with everything that Unz or Turley say, but in matters of the law you’d be foolish not to listen carefully to what Turley as to say. I will add that some of what Turley does say also relates to the case against John Bolton.
OK, back to FARA. I wanted to bring up those legal matters because they’re worth reading for those readers who are following those cases. This is how Unz ends his article. It’s broad brush, big picture stuff, intended to portray the current political state of America. He doesn’t specifically mention FARA, a more specific, but very relevant, topic—so we’ll do that.
Much of Trump’s domestic policy seems to have fallen into the hands of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. [A fanatical Zionist] A few weeks ago, Miller had declared that “the Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization,” and he has now ominously been put in charge of prosecuting “domestic terrorist organizations.”
During the early stages of our bloody Civil War more than 150 years ago, there is considerable evidence that President Abraham Lincoln made the decision to arrest Chief Justice Roger Taney, but changed his mind and countermanded his order before it could be carried out. That historical detail seems to provide the closest precedent for some of the political actions currently being taken or contemplated by the Trump Administration and its chief executive.
Again, Unz is painting with a broad brush. That’s why I recommended Turley to balance out the business about Comey.
For a leading world power to be led by someone so erratic seems quite unprecedented, but in some respects an interesting if different historical analogy comes to mind. For at least the last couple of decades, I’ve often quietly compared America’s political situation to that of India under the British Raj.
During that era, perhaps 100,000 British civilians and soldiers exercised total political control over hundreds of millions of Indians, doing so because the vast majority of that ignorant and downtrodden population probably remained unaware of the true situation, in which an enormous, teeming subcontinent was ruled by a small island on the other side of the world. As the English sometimes put it at the time, England didn’t rule India but instead England ruled India’s rulers.
From its beginnings in the growing presence of private groups of English merchants and traders in the early 18th century, British rule had steadily grown and spread across India, finally becoming formalized and unmistakable in the aftermath of the Great Sepoy Rebellion of the mid-19th century.
Similarly, the gradual, almost invisible growth of Jewish/Zionist control over America had taken around a century to reach its current levels, with the 1960s assassinations of the Kennedy brothers certainly marking a crucial inflection point. In my view, the bookend to the JFK Assassination might be the somewhat similar recent killing of youthful conservative leader Charlie Kirk, which quickly followed his sudden realization that he and his entire political movement were merely intended to function as Jewish/Zionist puppets, and indications of his political rebellion against that humiliating condition.
During the generations of British-ruled India, very large portions of that enormous country remained under the nominal political control of various native maharajahs, some of whom enjoyed fantastic wealth, were often enormously arrogant and wilful in their behavior, and sometimes even deranged. But despite seeing their whims treated as law and their arrogant flaunting of wealth and power, I think that all of them quietly recognized under whose authority they ultimately remained in office, or if not were quickly replaced.
I think that this historical analogy should be kept in mind as we consider the outrageous bullying and demands that our President Trump regularly visits upon American allies and vassals, always with the extremely glaring exception of Zionist Israel. And the sudden assassination of Charlie Kirk may have provided Trump a powerful booster-shot in that latter regard.
Beware Thomas Massie! But there are other examples of this, too.
So instead of classifying Trump as a Mad Emperor, perhaps he should instead be regarded as a Mad Maharajah, inflicting his punishing demands upon his fellow natives in hopes of concealing the deep humiliation of his true status.
Finally FARA!
We’ve referred in the past to the Jewish Nationalist takeover of much of American media, including now the alternative media. The goal, of course, is to prevent Americans from receiving accurate information about the doings of the Anglo-Zionist Empire generally and of its outpost in Palestine most specifically. That goal obviously requires concealing from Americans the control exercised over them and what they imagine to be their government by organizations like AIPAC but also by major Jewish Nationalists who control much of the flow of political cash in this country. John Mearsheimer refers to all this as The Israel Lobby, but it’s broader than that title implies.
We can, in hindsight, trace the beginnings of this aggressive media takeover to the very early days of the Trump 2.0 regime. Recall the concerted attack on TikTok. That, we were told, was to protect our precious personal data from the Chicoms by wresting control over TikTok from its Chinese ownership. However, it quickly became clear that the real goal was to censor TikTok, which was a main source for accurate information regarding Jewish Nationalist genocide in Palestine. More recently, the spearhead of this takeover has been revealed to be Jewish Nationalist mega billionaire Larry Ellison, and HUGE private donor to the IDF, a foreign military. Ellison and his son have been buying up huge slices of American media (CBS, and more) and were allowed also to purchase TikTok. They change the algoriths to censor the news, place puppets controllers in charge (Bari Weiss at CBS), and so forth. Ellison and his puppets should all be registered as agents of a foreign power under FARA. Which is where the emasculation of FARA comes in.
So what is Blondi, our AG, doing about this. Well, she helped enable it all, and now it turns out that virtually her first act upon being confirmed was to emasculate FARA:
GenXGirl @GenXGirl1994
AG PAM BONDI CLEARED THE WAY FOR ISRAEL’S FOREIGN INFLUENCE OPERATION
On her 1st day, newly appointed AG Pam Bondi, disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force, the DOJ office responsible for enforcing FARA. The change specifically limits DOJ prosecutors from criminally charging those involved in public-relations work & policy advocacy on behalf of foreign businesses & nonprofits.
This is key to understanding how Israel’s current foreign influence campaign is structured. The Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) states a Foreign Agent is “an individual who agrees to operate within the US subject to the direction of a foreign gov or official.” The penalty for unregistered Foreign Agents is 10yrs in prison.
FARA documents show money and direction flow from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Havas Media Group to entities operating in the US (Clock Tower X, Bridges Partners & Show Faith By Works). Employees of the entities are also registered under FARA but what’s not registered are independent contractors (also known as 1099 Contractors) and subcontractors.
Since Pam Bondi has directed the DOJ to only prosecute individuals who fall under the definition of the Espionage Act from 1917 (123 years ago), FARA violations involving PR firms and nonprofits engaged in Israeli influence campaigns online and via social media & media have free reign to propagandize Americans. That also means, unregistered 1099 contractors and subcontractors will also not be prosecuted. Furthermore, the penalty for not registering (should this become an issue) is no longer criminal charges leading to 10 year prison sentences. It is a simple slap on the wrist and a reminder to register.
This deliberate incapacitation of DOJ’s enforcement mechanism gives a green light to foreign influence operatives, ensuring that the Knesset’s 2018 plan to skirt FARA can proceed with minimal risk of prosecution.
I will do a separate thread to show how this memo was also used to dismiss one of the biggest FARA cases of our lifetime, NYC Mayor, Eric Adams.
Don’t take my word for this. The JPost, among other sources, has an article documenting this influence operation:
Leaked documents reveal Israel’s strategy to avoid US foreign lobbying law - report
Leaked documents suggest Israeli officials sought to avoid the US Foreign Agents Registration Act by creating a nonprofit to continue their activities under the radar.
Leaked documents suggest that the Israeli government sought legal guidance on how to navigate a US federal law that mandates the disclosure of foreign-funded lobbying efforts, The Guardian reported on Saturday. The concern stemmed from the possibility that increased enforcement of this law could implicate American organizations working in accordance with the Israeli government.
The documents, including emails and legal memos from a hack of Israel’s Justice Ministry, reveal that Israeli officials were worried their advocacy activities in the US might trigger compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). To avoid this, they considered establishing a new American nonprofit that could carry on Israel’s US operations without attracting scrutiny under the law.
A legal strategy memo from July 2018 highlighted that adhering to FARA could tarnish the reputation of American groups financially supported and directed by Israel. Additionally, these groups would be required to meet burdensome transparency standards. Another memo noted that donors would likely be reluctant to fund organizations registered under FARA due to the law’s requirements. Specifically, the law mandates that registrants label any “propaganda” distributed to two or more parties in the US, with a disclaimer indicating that it was disseminated by a foreign agent, and submit a copy to the US Department of Justice within 48 hours.
…
In other words, Blondi’s first step as AG was to emasculate FARA. That emasculation was intended to shield Trump’s controllers—and, by extension, Trump himself—from being accurately labeled as agents of a foreign power. More words: Blondi’s action is simply one mechanism for perpetuating the concealment from Americans of the reality that Unz describes by analogy to the British Raj in India and their puppet maharajahs,
.. some of whom enjoyed fantastic wealth, were often enormously arrogant and wilful in their behavior, and sometimes even deranged. But despite seeing their whims treated as law and their arrogant flaunting of wealth and power, …
And I’m sure those maharajahs enjoyed themselves enormously, as do our own.
Source: Meaning In History
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