Brandon Van Grack spoke to POLITICO about leaving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he spearheaded the department’s crackdown on unregistered foreign agents and was a lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“You’re dealing with a FARA [Foreign Agent Registration Act] unit that is more, better staffed, than it has been probably in my lifetime,” Brandon said, adding that he believes the Biden DOJ has “every intention to continue to robustly enforce FARA.”
He credited the Mueller investigation directly with the renewed emphasis and the creation of his position as head of the FARA unit in 2019, noting that “this sort of focus on FARA stems from what happened, the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election” and the government’s recognition of “a new threat, a new national security issue that the U.S. government was not…adequately prepared for or addressed.”
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