Foreign Agents

For the full and ad-free version of this episode, subscribe to Politicology+ at https://politicology.com/plus In this episode, Ron talks to  Casey Michel (Director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation) about his book Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World and how foreign money  influences our politics. They discuss: (01:46) The shadow world of foreign lobbying  (03:45) Ivy Lee and Paul Manafort  (07:36) The First Amendment and foreign influence  (10:23) Understanding FARA  (13:28) How Paul Manafort shaped modern lobbying  (15:49) Legal loopholes and foreign influence in politics  (18:11) The case of Viktor Pinchuk (22:13) The Trump Administration’s impact on foreign lobbying  (27:19) How Universities and Think tanks are the new frontier of influence  (33:05) Colorful characters in foreign lobbying  (41:39) The Biden Family and foreign influence accusations  (45:27) Contrasting foreign influence on Trump and Clinton  (49:00) Proposed reforms  Read Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World: https://bit.ly/4giHjBK Check out the HRF’s Combatting Kleptocracy Program: https://bit.ly/4hAAQTJ Follow Ron and Casey  on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RonSteslow https://x.com/cjcmichel Email your questions to [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at ‪(202) 455-4558‬  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices