It’s the NSD that is tasked with enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law passed by Congress that requires all persons working on behalf of a foreign government or entity to disclose that by registering and affirming they are representing foreign and not U.S. interests in their influencing activities.
The unsealed indictment states that when agents of the NSD’s FARA Unit questioned Craig about his past lobby activities on behalf of Ukraine, he lied to them under oath.
The indictment states:
This indictment of Craig sprang directly from the Mueller special counsel’s investigation of Paul Manafort, which looked into the former Trump campaign chairman’s illegal lobbying for Ukraine.
Foreign governments and political factions within some foreign states don’t just pay bribes to our politicians for favorable policy, they give money to media outlets to publish their propaganda, while pretending it’s coming from a neutral American source.
The Epoch Times has been on the cutting edge of revealing just how far China is going to subvert U.S. institutions, and not just the Congress or various federal agencies, but also the American news media.
Here’s what most people haven’t figured out yet: it’s assumed that only “politicians” or people who go around Washington calling themselves lobbyists are in danger of being found to be illegal foreign agents because they didn’t register under FARA.
This isn’t true.
Anybody with influence who takes money from a foreign power to lobby on their behalf without disclosing that by registering under FARA is breaking the law.
This includes–are you sitting down?—members of the U.S. news media.
Let me tell you the dirty secret that has the “smart” Fake News reporters all over the DNC Media freaking out. They took big money from foreign governments and factions to publish their propaganda disguised as “news coverage” to sway public opinion and affect U.S. foreign policy. That makes them unregistered foreign agents. Yes, just like Paul Manafort and, allegedly, Gregory Craig.
Understand the difference:
If a country such as China openly paid some U.S. media outlet to produce a propaganda newspaper/network show that argued for their interests above U.S. interests as a way to try to sway public opinion, there would be nothing wrong with that. That is, as long as it was being done openly.
Everybody would know “That newspaper/TV show represents China, etc. They are supposed to be giving the Chinese government’s point of view on stuff, and are trying to lobby/convince people to give China’s government what it wants. We know they get paid to do that.”
What would be illegal, however, is if China or whoever is making under-the-table payments so that a supposedly neutral U.S. media outlet publishes or airs China’s propaganda, without that outlet disclosing that it’s a paid agent working on behalf of the Chinese government.
Many in the DNC Media Complex didn’t just become paid political hacks for one certain U.S. political party; they became active foreign agents working for foreign clients and using their influence to publish stories and lobbying on behalf of those foreign clients, without ever admitting that’s what they were doing.
And right now, thanks to special counsel Robert Mueller and his crack team of 13 Angry Democrats, the entire country just got a years-long education on just what A Very Bad Thing it is to be an undeclared foreign agent.
What’s that hand I see there? “But doesn’t the First Amendment protections of the press allow them to engage in this kind of behavior and not be legally liable?”
Why no, in fact, there is no “First Amendment/Press Exception” clause in the FARA law that says “but you can totally do this if you are a reporter or a newspaper editor.” I want to stress that: there is no press exception in the FARA law.
So it’s not just the smart lawyers and the lobbyists and the consultants in D.C. who have figured out where this is all headed. Editors and “journalists” at many news outlets who became paid foreign agents long ago are suddenly waking up to the danger.
I believe we will see many DNC Media outlets’ relationships with foreign governments and political factions within foreign countries exposed, and some top media people could face charges for not filing as foreign agents.
