Investigation · Open dossier

Foreign influence in U.S. campaign finance.

Foreign nationals are legally prohibited from contributing to U.S. federal elections (52 U.S.C. § 30121). Foreign-agent lobbyists must register under FARA. Foreign-policy-aligned PACs are domestic but advocate specific foreign-country positions. This page tracks all four — every row links to a government primary source.

How to read this page

Four distinct categories — not one undifferentiated "foreign money" story.

"Foreign donor" is a phrase that does heavy lifting in political discourse, often collapsing four very different stories. We separate them on purpose:

Illegal foreign-national contributions — documented FEC or DOJ enforcement. Bulletproof.
FARA-registered lobbyist contributions — legal, but the politician was funded by lobbyists paid to advance a foreign government's interests.
Foreign state-owned-enterprise employees as donors — legal contributions from U.S. residents whose employer is a foreign government's business arm.
Foreign-policy-aligned PACs (DOMESTIC) — these are U.S. domestic PACs, NOT foreign agents. Their contributions are legal. They are listed here because their advocacy is focused on U.S. policy toward a specific foreign country.

Source bar: every row links to fec.gov, justice.gov, efile.fara.gov, or govinfo.gov. Where a row covers an FEC Matter Under Review that resulted in a 2-2 deadlock, we say so — a deadlock is a procedural dismissal, not a finding of innocence.

Filter:All (2)Foreign-policy-aligned PACs (DOMESTIC) (0)Illegal foreign-national contributions (0)FARA-registered lobbyist contributions (2)Foreign state-owned-enterprise employee donors (0)

Foreign Agents Registration Act

FARA-registered lobbyist contributions · 2

Lobbyists registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) may legally contribute to U.S. federal campaigns as individuals. The story is the alignment: a lobbyist working for a foreign government's interests contributed to politicians while those interests were being lobbied. Every row links to the efile.fara.gov registration and the contribution record.

Mercury Public Affairs + Podesta Group lobbyists

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Origin: Ukraine·Mercury / Podesta Group (FARA-registered for European Centre for a Modern Ukraine)

FEC MUR 7272: complaint alleging Mercury and Podesta lobbyists, working as undisclosed agents for Ukraine's Party of Regions / ECMU, made contributions while lobbying on behalf of those foreign principals.

Recipient: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Rep. Edward Royce, Sen. James Risch (and other committees)

Important caveat: the FEC commission DEADLOCKED 2-2 on whether to pursue enforcement. This is a procedural dismissal, not a finding of innocence. The underlying lobbying-while-contributing pattern was documented in the MUR file.

FEC — Matter Under Review 7272 → · 2017-08-17

n/a

cycle 2014

Dismissed

Podesta Group (FARA registrant 5926)

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Origin: Ukraine·Podesta Group (FARA-registered for European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, retroactive 2017)

Podesta Group amended FARA registration in April 2017 retroactively disclosing 2012-era lobbying for European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (~$1.2M); principals subsequently appeared in FEC MUR 7272.

Recipient: Multiple federal campaigns (per Podesta Group retroactive FARA filing)

The retroactive FARA registration is the receipt: lobbying activity for a foreign principal was occurring during the same period Podesta employees were making federal contributions, and was not disclosed under FARA at the time it was occurring.

FARA — DOJ National Security Division → · 2017-04-12

n/a

cycle 2012

The audit before the $250M · CR's editorial founding document

The 145 promises he made before the $250M.

"Miriam gave my campaign indirectly and directly $250 million." — Donald J. Trump, White House Hanukkah reception, Dec 16, 2025. SEALED is the audit of every campaign promise Trump made BEFORE that money flowed. 145 promises, graded against primary-source receipts. 116pp PDF.

Read the case study — $15 PDF116pp · sealed2016.com