Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World

58. Secretary Pompeo (@secpompeo), “The @StateDept will henceforth request think tanks that accept money from foreign governments disclose this information to the public. The purpose is simple: to promote free and open dialogue, untainted by the machinations of authoritarian regimes,” Twitter, 11:47 a.m. October 13, 2020, https://twitter.com/secpompeo/status/1316042794411196417.

15. YOU’RE FUCKED

1. “Bloomberg: Would Be Godsend if More Billionaires Moved to NYC,” NBC 4 New York, September 20, 2013.

2. Paul Manafort, Political Prisoner: Persecuted, Prosecuted, but Not Silenced (New York: Skyhorse, 2022).

3. Ibid.

4. U.S. Department of Justice, “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” (Mueller Report), March 2019.

5. Another vector of Russian meddling that the Mueller Report overlooked was Moscow’s cultivation of American secessionists in places like Texas and California, though this was less an influence or lobbying campaign and more simply a matter of sowing chaos in the United States—and potentially fracturing the United States outright. This, unexpectedly, was how I initially uncovered the social media prong of Russian interference efforts—including a grammatically challenged post that read, memorably, “IN LOVE WITH TEXAS SHAPE.” See Casey Michel, “How the Russians Pretended to Be Texas—and Texans Believed Them,” Washington Post, October 17, 2017.

6. One area the Mueller Report overlooked, for instance, was how the Kremlin was firmly embedded in leading nonprofit organizations among America’s so-called Religious Right. One organization in particular, the US-based World Congress of Families (WCF), offered entrée for a range of pro-Kremlin oligarchs and their proxies—and allowed them to directly access, and lobby, American politicians and allies within the Religious Right. As Alexey Komov, the Russian representative for the WCF—which has accepted funding from multiple now-sanctioned Russian oligarchs—told me, “We’re often shown as a strange people like we’re homophobic fascists or something.” Given the Kremlin’s recent manifestation, “homophobic fascist” remains an apt description. See Casey Michel, “How Russia Became the Leader of the Global Christian Right,” Politico Magazine, February 9, 2017.

7. Unsurprisingly, cultivation of evangelical organizations and groups like the NRA carried significant overlap. For instance, Russian agent Maria Butina originally connected with the NRA because of a Tennessee lawyer named Kline Preston. When I spoke with Preston, he revealed that he believed Putin was, quite literally, a gift from God. “I think there are certain people throughout history … who have been placed on this planet, once about every five hundred years, who are difference-makers, without whom things would be much different and worse,” Preston told me. “In the history of our nation, I believe firmly that George Washington was one of those people. Had he not lived, this would be a totally different scenario. There are two people in Russian history in the last days that I believe were God-sent. One was Boris Yeltsin, and one was Vladimir Putin. And the reason I say Yeltsin … he was the guy that anointed Putin, and, man, that was a world-changer right there. Him. Yeltsin did it. And from whence it came, I can only think, you know, that it was divine.”

8. Casey Michel, “Tom Barrack Suggests Trump’s White House Was Even More Vulnerable than We Thought,” NBC News, July 25, 2021.

9. Sharon LaFraniere and William K. Rashbaum, “Thomas Barrack, Trump Fund-Raiser, Is Indicted on a Lobbying Charge,” New York Times, July 20, 2021.

10. U.S. Department of Justice, “Former Advisor to Presidential Candidate Among Three Defendants Charged with Acting as Agents of a Foreign Government,” press release, July 20, 2021.

11. U.S. v Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi et al., Indictment, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, Case No. 1:21-cr-00371, July 15, 2021, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1413381/download.

12. Tom Winter and Dareh Gregorian, “Tom Barrack, Former Trump Inaugural Chair, Released on $250 Million Bond,” NBC News, July 23, 2021.

13. Michel, “Tom Barrack Suggests.”

14. Rebecca Davis O’Brien, “Trump Adviser’s Trial May Shed Light on Foreign Influence Campaigns,” New York Times, September 17, 2022.

15. Debra J. Saunders, “Steve Wynn Named RNC Finance Chairman,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 30, 2017.

16. Isaac Stanley-Becker and Spencer S. Hsu, “U.S. Sues to Compel Casino Mogul Steve Wynn to Register as Agent of China,” Washington Post, May 17, 2022.

17. Attorney General of United States of America v. Stephen A. Wynn, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 22-1372, May 17, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1506786/download.