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U.S. Hints at Curbing Foreign Agent Registration Exemptions

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Brandon Van Grack spoke to Bloomberg Law regarding remarks from a Department of Justice (DOJ) official at a recent conference that indicated the DOJ may soon propose revising foreign lobbying disclosure obligations. T

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Brandon Van Grack spoke to Bloomberg Law regarding remarks from a Department of Justice (DOJ) official at a recent conference that indicated the DOJ may soon propose revising foreign lobbying disclosure obligations. The change could upend longstanding norms in the Foreign Agents Registration Act bar and reverse DOJ’s advice to companies as recently as earlier this year.Brandon stated, “It did appear to be a narrowing of the exemption that is not consistent with how practitioners have been viewing it, and not necessarily reflected in Department of Justice actions and communication over the years and decades.”Read the full <a href="https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw/bloombergterminalnews/bloomberg-terminal-news/S5M4X9DWRGG0" target="_blank">story</a> (subscription required).

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Brandon L. Van Grack co-chairs Morrison Foerster’s National Security and Crisis Management groups. His practice focuses on investigations, criminal defense, and compliance matters involving export controls and sanctions, foreign investment, and cyber incidents. Brandon’s arrival to the firm follows more than a decade of service at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he held senior positions in the first Trump Administration. In those positions, he helped manage the U.S. government’s tools to address perceived national security threats in China and Russia, oversaw every criminal investigation involving sanctions and export controls, and was Chief of DOJ’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit.Brandon’s leadership and breadth of national security experience offers clients in the financial services, technology, artificial intelligence, defense, media, and communications sectors unmatched insider enforcement perspective across the entire national security landscape, including sanctions, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), export control, cybersecurity matters, and FARA.<h4>Investigations & White Collar Defense </h4>At the DOJ, Brandon led and supervised some of the government’s most significant corporate investigations and resolutions across the national security spectrum. As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and a Trial Attorney in the Counterintelligence & Export Control Section, he worked on the resolution of almost every significant corporate matter pertaining to export control and sanctions violations in the last decade and is one of the few attorneys to have managed the DOJ’s Voluntary Self‑Disclosure Program for export control and sanctions violations. As Chief of the FARA Unit, he directed scores of investigations of companies for acting as unregistered foreign agents. He also served as Senior Assistant Special Counsel for Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, handling some of the office’s most significant matters.Brandon also managed significant corporate investigations and resolutions across the national security spectrum. As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and a Trial Attorney in the Counterintelligence & Export Control Section, he worked on the resolution of almost every significant corporate matter pertaining to export control and sanctions violations in the last decade and is one of the few attorneys to have managed the DOJ’s Voluntary Self‑Disclosure Program for export control and sanctions violations. As Chief of the FARA Unit, he directed scores of investigations of companies for acting as unregistered foreign agents.<h4>Sanctions, Export Control, & Foreign Investment</h4>As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Brandon oversaw every criminal investigation involving export control and sanctions and led the DOJ’s response to the Obama Administration’s rollback of sanctions targeting Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). As a Trial Attorney, he prosecuted more than 30 export control and sanctions cases, including first-ever cases involving North Korea, weapons of mass destruction, and the Atomic Energy Act. In the first Trump Administration, Brandon led DOJ’s review of transactions involving foreign influence before CFIUS and Team Telecom; he also managed the DOJ’s review of transactions before CFIUS during the Obama Administration.<h4>FARA & the Lobbying Disclosure Act</h4>As Chief of the FARA Unit in the first Trump Administration, and the first official to supervise all foreign influence matters across the DOJ, Brandon revitalized and transformed the enforcement of FARA. Following the DOJ’s announcement making FARA an enforcement priority, he supervised a team of 40 attorneys and staff that opened a record number of investigations, pursued a record number of enforcement actions, secured a record number of registrations, and obtained the first civil injunction involving FARA in nearly three decades. Brandon also directed the review of Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings for criminal violations and regulated the exemption under FARA for LDA registrants. He also wrote the book on FARA enforcement for the American Bar Association.<h4>Cybersecurity </h4>As a long-time prosecutor, including as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Brandon directed complex cyber investigations, including multiple matters involving state-sponsored cyber attacks. He prosecuted the first person convicted as a cyberterrorist and led the investigation of an international hacking group for identity theft, extortion, and dozens of spearphishing attacks against public and private entities. He also collaborated with other government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security, to facilitate cooperation from corporate victims and disseminate threat information.During his time at the DOJ, Brandon handled the entire range of national security matters. He led and supervised investigations and prosecutions involving espionage, economic espionage, mishandling of classified information, and theft of trade secrets. He also directed investigations involving treason, mutiny, the Neutrality Act, and the Logan Act.Brandon has been widely recognized for his deep experience in handling national security matters, and keynotes and speaks at industry conferences involving export control and sanctions, CFIUS, FARA, and political law. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service (2018), the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation (2017), the Director of National Counterintelligence’s Award for Excellence (2019), the Homeland Security Investigations Executive Associate Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterproliferation Investigation (2014), and five awards from the Assistant Attorney General for National Security.Brandon regularly provides insight on national security issues and DOJ matters with national media. He is a frequent contributor on cable news, including MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Deadline: Whitehouse and All In with Chris Hayes, ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, BBC News, Sky News and NHK World. He also regularly appears on NPR’s Morning Edition. He has been quoted on a variety of national security topics in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post, among others,Brandon is also a Contributing Editor to the Lawfare blog and co-host of <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/podcasts-multimedia/podcast/the-regulators-series" target="_blank">The Regulators</a> podcast, where he speaks with key U.S. government regulators in the national security space, including leaders at OFAC, CFIUS, the Bureau of Industry and Security, DOJ, FinCEN, the Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS), and FBI.