On her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi dramatically scaled back enforcement of laws designed to prevent people in America from covertly lobbying as foreign agents.
In a memo sent to Department of Justice staff on Feb. 5, Bondi described a new, more limited role for the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. “Recourse to criminal charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and 18 U.S.C. § 951 shall be limited to instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors,” Bondi wrote.
Further, Bondi’s memo says that the section of the National Security Division that contains the FARA unit, the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, “shall focus on civil enforcement, regulatory initiatives, and public guidance.”
Bondi is a former foreign agent herself. In 2019, the lobbying firm Ballard Partners registered through FARA to work for the government of Qatar to provide “advocacy services relative to US-Qatar bilateral relations, [including] guidance and assistance in matters related to combating human trafficking.” Bondi was designated one of the key personnel on the Qatar contract, for which Ballard Partners was paid $115,000 per month.
Ballard Partners, where Bondi was employed until her confirmation, is currently registered to work as a foreign agent lobbyist for Japan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the FARA database. In her ethics agreement with the Office of Government Ethics, Bondi pledged that she would not “participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which I know Ballard Partners is a party.”
