U.S. cuts task forces on foreign influence, Russian sanctions

The Justice Department is scaling back policing of foreign interests operating in the United States, ending criminal enforcement of a law used to snare bad actors seeking to influence politics and elections on behalf of foreign governments.

In a memo sent to staff Wednesday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed she had disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force, a unit dedicated to investigating violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), requiring such agents to register with US authorities.

She said the decision had been made to "free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion."

Bondi did not elaborate, but figures on the Republican Party's conspiratorial far right have accused the government of abusing FARA to unfairly target political operatives, such as Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's 2016 campaign manager who was indicted in a probe into Russian influence in that year's US election.

Also on Wednesday, the day of her swearing-in, Bondi disbanded the Task Force KleptoCapture, an initiative started in 2022 to enforce sanctions on Russia.

Moscow was widely accused of attempting to influence the 2016 vote in favor of Trump, who went on to win.

Russia has denied involvement in the scandal, despite findings from US intelligence agencies.

As for Manafort, he was charged with a litany of offenses, including acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal and lying in FARA documents. He was ultimately pardoned by Trump.

FARA was also used to pursue Mike Flynn, Trump's first national security advisor, who lied to the FBI about contacts with Russia, and former Democratic senator Bob Menendez, who was jailed in January for bribery and failing to register as a foreign agent for Egypt.

Bondi -- who previously registered herself under FARA for work she did with Qatar -- said she was limiting criminal enforcement of the law to "alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors."

In a flurry of edicts sent out on her first day in the job, Bondi also launched a unit focused on the 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, targeted diversity programs for elimination and restarted enforcement of the federal death penalty, which had been halted under then-president Joe Biden.

© Agence France-Presse