 Good afternoon everybody who's joining us today at the IIEA and we're delighted today to be joined by Casey Michelle director of combatting kleptocracy program at the Human Rights Foundation. Just before I introduce Casey, I want to just go through a little bit of housekeeping if you don't mind. You'll be able to join in the Q&A section on Zoom and you should see that on your screen where it says Q&A and please feel free if you think of something as Casey is speaking, put in your question and we can get to it later. We also want to remind you that today's question and answer and the speech is all on the record. And I ask you also to feel free to join the discussion on the Twitter or X isn't it called now using the handle at IIEA. And so those are all the housekeeping and if you can when you put your name in with the question, you might give us a little idea of are you representing a group or what you actually do yourself. That helps Casey in answering the question to know where you're coming from. As I say we're joined today by Casey Michelle. Casey is the director of combatting kleptocracy program at the Human Rights Foundation. Now, he's a very prolific author. He's an author of American Kleptocracy, how the US created the world's greatest money laundering scheme in history. And when I read that title Casey, I got an awful fright because I thought, my God, are we sending the US into prison? But he has a new book coming out now. The forthcoming foreign, the foreign agents, how American lobbyists and lawmakers threaten democracy around the world, which is being published by St. Martin's Press. Now, at a time, ladies and gentlemen, when we are when many millions of people are facing an election around the world, I think it's a very apt moment that we would hear from Casey. He clearly has done a huge amount of research into what is happening around the world with regard to autocracies and the stealing of information and the input into elections. And according to Casey, and he will tell us this, Western foreign lobbyists have worked as foot soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet, which is quite a daring expression to make. And in the US alone, the foreign lobbying industry is now worth billions of dollars, not millions, but we're up to billions and we're probably moving towards trillions. It's no longer just the PR shops or the traditional lobbying shops. Many of you will know about those here in Ireland. And it's the industry now encompasses officials, consultancies, law firms, pink tanks, and even universities, and they're all working on behalf of foreign dictatorship. So it's quite an amazing story that Casey has to tell us. And I'm going to introduce Casey now. He will speak for 15, 20 minutes or thereabouts, and then we will have time for questions or comments. So Casey, I'm handing over the floor to you now. Thank you very much indeed for joining us today. Nora, thank you so very much for that generous introduction. Obviously, thanks to everyone at IIEA for having me here today. I'm coming to you from beautiful New York City. I was in Dublin most recently in 2022, obviously had a wonderful time and will hopefully be back very soon. Thankfully, I was there just for vacation and not for researching any foreign lobbying links. So as Nora mentioned, I wanted to take the first 15 minutes or so of this conversation today to talk about my latest project, which is this book, Foreign Agents, looking at again how the US's foreign lobbying industry has positively exploded in recent years. I'm going to be discussing a little bit later on some of the lessons that I have come across that have proven effective in the United States of America and lessons that could potentially be imparted to other Western democracies as well. Before really diving in, I also wanted to flag that my wife and I just moved a few weeks ago. We are still figuring out where to set up talks like this. If you do see my dear sweet one-year-old daughter running around in the background, just before I joined, if she pulled my side table down, there may be some distractions along the way. We won't mind that we've had that before as long as they're fully closed. Oh, I believe so at this point. I do promise she is at least extremely cute. So anyways, onto the topic at hand. As Nora mentioned, my new book is called Foreign Agents. I have a copy of it right here behind me to make my publisher happy. The thrust of the book is simple. In the United States of America, the foreign lobbying industry again has positively exploded over the past few decades, all with extremely, extraordinarily little scrutiny and with little realization for just how much damage this industry does, not only to American interests, but to Democratic interests around the world. It is an industry that, as I argue, no longer includes just traditional lobbyists themselves, but now includes everyone from PR professionals and consultants to America's leading law firms and former congressional officials and even think tanks and unfortunately increasingly universities. All of these actors now comprise an industry that allows dictators around the world to access American policymakers, launder their own images, entrench their regimes, and even shift American policy in the process without the rest of us, either in the US or elsewhere, even being aware. Now, the book itself is chock full of all kinds of stories going back nearly a century to look at how the so-called father of public relations, the so-called father of the PR industry was, as I argue, the first true foreign lobbyist. He was a gentleman that opened doors not only for Benito Mussolini in Rome or the highest ranks of Soviet officials in Moscow, but even directly helped the Nazi regime in Berlin target and sway Americans. Much of the book focuses also on, especially the past decade or so, and the rise of not just President Donald Trump, but all of the foreign lobbyists surrounding Trump, including, among others, his director of national security, key foreign policy and economic advisors, leading fundraisers and the Republican Party, even his personal lawyer and, perhaps most especially, his 2016 campaign chairman, a gentleman named Paul Manafort, who, prior to linking up with then candidate Trump, created a network in Ukraine that helped set the stage for Russia's initial 2014 invasion and everything we have seen since. Now, I do promise that the book is not overly or at least entirely depressing. There are some, as I would like to think, fun stories therein, such as when Paul Manafort, who I mentioned just a moment ago, ended up on a children's game show, or when an American academic who was secretly working with the dictatorship in Azerbaijan, when I asked her about that, she demanded to know instead my cholesterol count, which unfortunately I'm still getting older and I still don't know my cholesterol count. I will have to check that at some point. I also promise that the book, in much of my work, is not simply a kind of partisan screed. If you do buy a copy, and I certainly hope you do, again, to make my publisher happy, you'll see that there is plenty of criticism for things like the Clinton Foundation, which unfortunately became little more than a turnstile for dictatorships trying to whitewash their regimes, as well as criticism of the current administration in the White House, which has rolled back some of the key disclosure requirements that we had seen implemented in previous years. I did want to, as we kind of dive into the meat of this conversation, run through a few quick figures, as well as a few quick examples to hopefully give you all a sense of the scope and the scale and maybe a little bit more grounding of this industry that I do write about and which this book will focus on. Now, the first is the actual scope of the industry itself. As Nora mentioned, it is worth billions of dollars at this point. At last check, foreign entities, including foreign governments, have spent nearly $5 billion on lobbyists and lobbying in the United States over the past few years, and this represents and includes all manner of regimes from China and Russia to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. I should say it's not only dictatorships or authoritarian regimes spending this money. I took a look earlier this week, and the Irish government has spent a little over $160 million in that time frame over the past few years. So again, it spans all manner and types of regimes. And this is again an absolute explosion, far more than anything we have ever seen in American history, certainly far more than anything in previous decades. Spending from Russia and China alone has skyrocketed in recent years growing by multiple magnitudes since just 2016. Beijing continues to take the top spot overall. And again, over just the past few years, we have seen not only a title flow of funds coming in, but thousands of new lobbyists in Washington registered to work on behalf of these regimes. And again, we do see many of these traditional lobbyists, those who have been working for domestic constituencies, now working for foreign regimes, as well as public relations professionals and American consultant firms. Unfortunately, one of the greatest areas of growth has been for former members of Congress who face few, if any restrictions on leaving office to work as lobbyists. The most recent survey found that over 100 former members of the US House and Senate have left office to work as foreign lobbyists. And again, that's not even including things like former diplomats, former cabinet members. These are just members of the House and Senate. Unfortunately, these are hardly no-name backbench politicians. I write about one figure in particular in the book. You may remember him, an American senator named Bob Dole, who was one of the titans of the US Senate during much of the 20th century. He was also the Republican nominee for president in 1996, losing to Bill Clinton. After leaving office, former Senator Dole did not simply retire and do the speaking circuits. He unfortunately decided to become the US's most famous, most prominent foreign lobbyist going to work directly on behalf of regimes in places like, again, the United Arab Emirates, as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition to becoming the go-to mouthpiece for laundering the reputation of a Russian oligarch and close Putin ally who was later sanctioned by the United States of America as well as other Western democracies. Again, going back to this $5 billion figure, we have seen those funds spread far and wide. As I mentioned a moment ago, many of those funds, in addition to going to traditional lobbyists, PR professionals, and former members of Congress, also now go to America's most prominent law firms, all of whom are working to whitewash the images of these regimes. Now, there's plenty in the book on each of these topics, and especially on the role of American law firms, which directly helped entrench pro-Russian interests in Ukraine before 2014, and again, which set the stage for much of what we've seen after. I should say, perhaps my favorite character in the book was a foreign lobbyist named Edward von Kloberg, who was perhaps the most flamboyant figure I've ever covered. He enjoyed wearing a cape plastering his bathroom with photos of his dictatorial clients, which included Saddam Hussein. Again, I'm not sure how I feel about having photos of Saddam in one's bathroom. But as he liked to say, his favorite quote was, shame is for sissies, which was, again, a theme that crossed any number of these figures, certainly all of these industries that now comprise the foreign lobbying industry itself. I also write again about the role of American think tanks and universities. This is hopefully not a bit awkward, giving that I'm talking to you at a think tank today. I'm speaking again specifically about the role of American think tanks, which have unfortunately become the go-to vehicles for foreign influence and reputation laundering in the United States, and that is largely because they have absolutely no disclosure requirements whatsoever. I had a piece come out just a few weeks ago, an investigation into how the Hungarian government under Viktor Orbán is now turning to no longer traditional lobbyists or PR professionals, but now relies solely on the pro-Trump heritage foundation think tank to access American policymakers to launch Hungarian influence campaigns and to, again, launder the reputation of the Hungarian government under Mr. Orbán. We have seen this across the board, places like the UAE and Qatar tossing millions of dollars, not just at these conservative pro-Trump think tanks, but also at centrist and even liberal think tanks as well. To take but one example, the Brookings Institution, which some of you may be familiar with, still arguably the leading think tank in the United States, also took millions and millions of dollars directly from the dictatorship in Qatar. One researcher there said this all led to a, quote, no-go zone when it comes to criticizing the Qatari government. That's think tanks. Just I wanted to turn momentarily as well to the role of universities. And again, these are all topics we can discuss further in the conversation today. But there was additionally a federal investigation a few years ago that uncovered universities in the United States have been hiding, have been failing to disclose billions. Billions, again, additionally billions of dollars in foreign sources, including from some of the most repressive regimes on the planet, totaling about $6.5 billion that was not disclosed to the federal government and to the American populace, but which was legally required. My favorite moment from that investigation probably came from the prestigious Cornell University, which is right here in New York State, which somehow failed to report, I'm still not quite sure how this happened, about $760 million in foreign funding. That again, it was legally required to report. Cornell leadership, quote, chose the word dumbfounded to explain this reporting error and provided no explanation. Dumbfounded is certainly a term I have found myself using time and again and covering these networks. And again, stories upon stories that I could share with you day in and day out certainly over this next hour. And again, there's plenty more on that in this book about how these anti-democratic regimes around the world have used and abused foreign lobbying access and networks to again entrench their regimes, whitewash their reputations, access American policymakers, and in the process sway, tilt, and shift American foreign policy without the rest of us being aware. Again, as we get more into the conversation, I'm happy to share more of these stories to talk more about the specific role and threat of Donald Trump, or to talk about in a few weeks the very first trial in American history of an American senator, sitting American senator who has now been charged with conspiring to act as a foreign lobbyist as a foreign agent. But I did want to close my comments today. Again, not on an overly depressing note, but to share one of the lessons that has clearly come through in my work and the work that I am relying on plenty of other researchers and investigators to publish so much of this material. There is one reason that this book in particular exists, and that is because of a specific piece of American legislation known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, also known by its acronym as FERA. This is the single regulation that requires foreign lobbyists in America to register and to disclose their work. All of the facts, all of the figures, and many of the stories that I detailed just a few moments ago are only because they are only available. I only know about them because FERA exists, the Foreign Agents Registration Act exists. It is the only reason I was able to write this book and the primary reason I am here with you today is because the United States of America has these transparency requirements for what these foreign lobbyists are doing and who they are doing it on behalf of and how much they are being paid in the process. Some of you may have heard of FERA in recent years. That is likely because of President Trump himself and everything we saw in Washington since 2016. Unfortunately, even though FERA was on the books since the 1930s, it was barely enforced until the mid-2010s when President Trump came along and brought with him all of these unregisters, undisclosed foreign lobbyists. And then President Trump won the presidency and ushered all of these foreign lobbyists directly into the White House to the pinnacle of American politics. And Americans themselves realized that FERA needs to be enforced, must be enforced, and all of a sudden realized full on what the threat of not enforcing these disclosure requirements actually looked like. Now again, I'm happy to talk more about what FERA is and the history and the impact of this legislation. But let me say, if nothing else, if there is no other takeaway from this talk today, FERA has been the single greatest tool in shining a light on these networks operating in and around the United States of America. And it is long, long past time for other democracies to implement their own versions of FERA, whether it's in Dublin or in Brussels or elsewhere. And again, sure we'll talk about this as the conversation moves forward, but the European Union has certainly seen its own share of foreign lobbying scandals in recent years, certainly even just in recent months. Scandals they could have perhaps been prevented if something like FERA had existed in Brussels and was of course also enforced. But unfortunately, we only learned about these things when it is too late, and we all end up worse because of it. Let me continue to advocate for the creation of FERA style legislation in Europe and in Ireland so that we can have a far better idea of what these networks are doing because they do not operate only in the United States of America. They are international and transnational in scope. And even though we know a good idea of what they are doing in the United States, that's only looking through a keyhole about what they are doing in democracies around the world. So I will stop there and would love to see where this conversation goes.