Republican/Tea Party candidates who take money from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce should be prosecuted for failing to register as foreign agents.
While the Scalia court in the Citizens United case has established the free speech rights of Asian companies to participate in U.S. elections, nothing has taken away the obligation under the U.S. Code for foreign agents to register.
While getting the Justice Department to file charges could take some time, demanding that the recipients of foreign campaign support register as foreign agents could put their campaigns on the defensive.
Here is what the law says:
TITLE 22--FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE
CHAPTER 11--FOREIGN AGENTS AND PROPAGANDA
SUBCHAPTER II--REGISTRATION OF FOREIGN PROPAGANDISTS
Sec. 612. Registration statement
(a) Filing; contents
No person shall act as an agent of a foreign principal unless he has
filed with the Attorney General a true and complete registration
statement and supplements thereto as required by subsections (a) and (b)
of this section or unless he is exempt from registration under the
provisions of this subchapter. Except as hereinafter provided, every
person who becomes an agent of a foreign principal shall, within ten
days thereafter, file with the Attorney General, in duplicate, a
registration statement, under oath on a form prescribed by the Attorney
General. The obligation of an agent of a foreign principal to file a
registration statement shall, after the tenth day of his becoming such
agent, continue from day to day, and termination of such status shall
not relieve such agent from his obligation to file a registration
statement for the period during which he was an agent of a foreign
principal.
The exceptions are pretty limited -- diplomats, non-political employees at embassies, etc.
One might say that because these foreigners may be making "independent expenditures," that the candidates are receiving no money. I don't buy that. The law also covers people receiving "a thing of value." If you are a candidate for Congress, certainly a $250,000 advertising program is a "thing of value."
It is unfortunate, that none of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsors disclosed so far are from Manchuria. But is one place in Asia really better than another as far as influencing our government is concerned?
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pretends to be an umbrella group for the local chambers of commerce throughout the country. Nothing could be further from the truth. The U.S. Chamber is a corrupt lobby for the super-rich and has never done anything for local businesses or communities.