Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) & Covert Foreign Influence Laws

• Examining how the 2026 midterms will influence congressional oversight, state-level foreign influence legislation, DOJ priorities and the broader FARA risk environment
• Advising organizations that face public scrutiny, congressional attention or state AG pressure even before any formal enforcement action
• Assisting clients to avoid both underreaction and overcorrection when enforcement signals are mixed
• Building compliance strategies that remain defensible across administrations, political cycles and changing enforcement priorities
• Aligning FARA guidance with state foreign influence laws, lobbying rules, sanctions/OFAC, governance, reputation and crisis-response considerations
• Translating legal advice into board-ready and executive-level risk guidance

• Coordinating legal, communications, compliance, investigations, and enterprise-risk teams during a FARA or foreign influence crisis
• Managing the first 48 hours after a DOJ inquiry, subpoena, media story, congressional request, state AG letter, or public allegation
• Assessing reputational exposure tied to foreign funding, sovereign wealth fund relationships, foreign principals, advocacy work, nonprofit programming, and public affairs campaigns
• Preserving privilege and legal strategy while responding to public, board, donor, client, investor, employee, and stakeholder concerns
• Developing proactive mitigation tools, including foreign relationship vetting, escalation protocols, reputational risk assessments, board reporting, and crisis simulations
• Discovering how FARA compliance, public trust, and enterprise governance intersect when foreign influence risk becomes visible
• Managing reputational risk re: relationships to China and other countries of concern

• Comparing & contrasting recent legal matters for insights into how federal prosecutors distinguish covert foreign influence (FARA and § 951 violations) , foreign lobbying, and foreign-government-linked commercial activity.
• Examining the fact patterns for each matter: paid lobbying and state-owned enterprise ties in Rivera; alleged PRC-directed local media and political activity in Wang; alleged foreign influence inside state government in Sun (in comparison with Barrack case); the limits advocacy in Terry; and covert surveillance in Zhang
• Get practical insights for strategic communications & advocacy organizations, global institutions, and FARA practitioners around these risks:
  • Foreign government direction or control
  • Undisclosed benefits
  • Messaging requests
  • Access to public officials
  • Intermediary relationships
  • Unclear lines between official duties and foreign principal interests.

• Assessing when foreign donations, grants, partnerships, research support, or international affiliations may create FARA registration, disclosure, or escalation challenges
• Determining how DOJ enforcement uncertainty, congressional attention, state AG scrutiny, and state-level foreign influence laws are reshaping risk for environmental and advocacy nonprofits
• Evaluating how foreign funding allegations can create legal, political, reputational, donor-relations, and governance exposure even before any formal enforcement action
• Distinguishing FARA risk from adjacent concerns, including sanctions, OFAC, AML, lobbying, campaign finance, charitable solicitation, and broader foreign influence compliance obligations
• Building practical intake, review, and escalation procedures for advocacy campaigns, public-policy work, grantmaking, foreign donor relationships, events, research partnerships, and third-party messengers
• Training programs, development, government relations, communications, legal, and executive teams to identify when foreign funding or foreign-national involvement should be escalated to counsel
• Benchmarking how similarly situated nonprofits are strengthening compliance programs, auditing existing controls, documenting decisions, and preparing for inquiries, media scrutiny, or political accusations

NEW for 2026! DOJ has signaled movement toward a final FARA rule that would expand exemptions commonly used by corporations and law firms while adopting only some of the January 2025 proposals. That puts a practical question before counsel and compliance leaders: Which exemption decisions should you revisit, and what would justify a different conclusion?

Bring your questions to small-group discussions with experienced FARA practitioners and peers. Compare approaches to difficult fact patterns, identify the facts that support—or undermine—reliance, and consider what potential regulatory changes could mean for existing engagements. Facilitators will distinguish current requirements from proposed changes and address any final rule published before the Forum, including its effective date. Delegates will select their first table, then rotate every 15 minutes.

Table One: The Exemptions for Bona Fide Commercial Activities
What distinguishes private, nonpolitical commercial activity from promotion of foreign-government interests? Discuss the proposed tourism provision and changes to the “directly promote” standard—and which existing engagements could merit reassessment depending on the final rule.

Table Two: The Exemption for Bona Fide Religious, Scholastic, Academic, Scientific & Fine Arts Pursuits
Where is the boundary between exempt pursuits and political activity for a foreign principal? Compare approaches to research, educational programs and related public advocacy, including how to assess mixed-purpose activities and document the basis for reliance.

Table Three: The LDA Exemption & Activities “Not Serving Predominantly a Foreign Interest”
When is the LDA exemption available, and when does § 613(d)(2) require a different analysis? Examine foreign-government involvement, the interests an activity serves, and what DOJ’s proposed exclusions and multifactor test could mean for corporate and nonprofit engagements.

Table Four: The Exemptions for Attorneys & Diplomatic Officials
When does legal representation encompass advice or communications outside formal proceedings, and where does policy advocacy change the answer? Discuss the proposed clarifications for attorneys and, separately, the eligibility requirements for diplomatic officials and staff.

Your questions help shape the discussion! ACI will solicit questions from registered attendees before the Forum and provide them to facilitators, anonymously. This gives attendees a way to raise difficult questions and helps facilitators prepare focused discussions around the issues participants are actually facing.

Examining the state-level laws targeting covert foreign influence, agents, and funding, including:

• Identifying exemption gaps and comparing and contrasting key concepts on the state and federal level
• Analyzing how the interplay between federal, state and international covert foreign influence laws creates new compliance risks for strategic communications & advocacy firms and their non-profit and institutional clients (NGOs, higher education, state-owned enterprises, sovereign wealth funds, foreign-linked companies, and foreign funded organizations)
• Evolving covert foreign influence legislation and enforcement trends that could broaden compliance risk beyond FARA registration
• Advising clients when state-level scrutiny, public allegations, or legislative attention may create risk before formal enforcement begins
• Developing agile, practical monitoring and documentation protocols to identify and mitigate covert foreign influence compliance risk in a dynamic political environment

• Emerging FARA risk scenarios involving influencers, celebrities, commentators, event speakers, digital creators and other public-facing surrogates
• Distinguishing independent public commentary from paid, directed or coordinated foreign-principal advocacy
• Assessing the key risk factors: foreign-principal involvement, compensation, agency, control, message approval, audience targeting and policy-facing content
• Managing information-materials obligations, disclaimers, public filings, recordkeeping and reputational exposure
• Coordinating FARA analysis with FTC endorsement rules, lobbying laws, public affairs ethics, contract controls and client-intake procedures
• Implementing mitigation practices, including pre-engagement diligence, written scopes of work, approval workflows, escalation protocols, training and documentation
• Evaluating when to register, disclose, restructure the engagement, limit U.S.-facing activity or walk away from the relationship