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Atticus

(15,124 posts)
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 06:34 PM Jul 2021

Just heard Wolf Blitzer refer to the charges against Barrack as "illegal foreign lobbying".

My understanding is that he is charged with secretly working as the agent of a foreign nation for the purpose of steering US foreign policy. That's closer to SPYING than it is to "lobbying".

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Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
1. Odds are Barrack and Jared spent the entirety of the Pig's admin influence peddling.
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 06:39 PM
Jul 2021

I wonder how much ME money ended up in the GOP's campaign warchests along with the Russian money

Ocelot II

(115,267 posts)
2. Spying is providing classified or confidential information of the US to a foreign government.
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 06:40 PM
Jul 2021

He didn't do that so he wasn't a spy; if he had been he'd have been charged with espionage, an even more serious crime than lobbying a foreign government (which is bad enough). Specifically, he is accused of secretly promoting the interests of the UAE at the direction of its officials by influencing the foreign policy positions of Trump’s 2016 campaign, and following that, the positions of the US government. Lobbying, as an agent of the UAE but not a spy, is exactly the correct term.

Eliot Rosewater

(31,096 posts)
3. Something that if ANYONE from an Obama or Hillary of Joe administration did it
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 06:45 PM
Jul 2021

there would be WALL TO WALL news coverage of every network and it would be enough to demand the president step down.

On an average day of the trump admin and now with revelations there we at least two crimes or acts exposed, again on an AVERAGE day that would end the presidency of any Democrat.

Atticus

(15,124 posts)
5. So, Maria Butina was just a "lobbyist"? Wasn't she charged under the same statute? If not,
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 06:54 PM
Jul 2021

the several talking heads who said so yesterday on cable were very wrong.

And, if one Googles Maria she is referred to often as a "Russian spy".

Ocelot II

(115,267 posts)
6. An unregistered foreign agent (both Butina and Barrack) isn't the same as a spy.
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 07:06 PM
Jul 2021

It's sort of backwards from spying. A spy gives government information to a foreign government (according to the Espionage Act, it has to be national security information). Butina and Barrack were not charged under the Espionage Act, and I think the media are using the term "spy" loosely and inaccurately, since a person can be a foreign agent (one who acts on behalf of a foreign government) without being a spy (a person who commits espionage by supplying classified national security information to a foreign government).

Atticus

(15,124 posts)
8. I never said an unregistered foreign agent was the same as a spy. I stated my opinion that it was
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 07:18 PM
Jul 2021

more like a spy than a lobbyist. Calling Barrack a spy would be an overstatement, but calling him merely a "lobbyist" is downplaying the seriousness of his conduct and that is something the Trump loyalists are anxious to do.

Ocelot II

(115,267 posts)
9. I guess "unregistered foreign agent," which is what the statute calls them,
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 07:23 PM
Jul 2021

is the term that should be used. Indeed, the term "lobbyist" does sound more harmless than it really is if the lobbying is being done on behalf of a foreign government without disclosure.

Baked Potato

(7,733 posts)
4. Like Dump, Barrack was tiptoeing on the legal/scummy tightrope.
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 06:50 PM
Jul 2021

In March 2017, Barrack and his co-defendants agreed to promote the candidacy of an individual favored by senior UAE officials for the position of United States Ambassador to the UAE. In May 2017, Barrack agreed to provide Alshahhi with non-public information about the views and reactions of senior United States government officials following a White House meeting between senior United States officials and senior UAE officials.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/former-advisor-presidential-candidate-among-three-defendants-charged-acting-agents

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