I am having a bit of trouble with the idea of retroactive registration as foreign agent.

The important stuff on foreign agents

The Foreign Agents Registration Act has been a law since 1938 and modified several times since then.

This law seems to be serious business but I understand that although failure to register is a felony these cases are often not pursued by the Justice Department. If we have laws, and this seem to be an important law, why not enforce them?

President Donald Trump’s first national security advisor and campaign advisor Michael Flynn has been shown to be a foreign agent and has retroactively registered as foreign agent. President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will retroactively register as foreign agent.

So far these are the only 2 known foreign agents on the Trump team but we are less than 3 months into this presidency and while there are investigations in progress, they seem to be delayed and hindered by the Trump administration.

It seems to me that it is important that Congress and government officials know that the opinions and advice received on various issues comes from foreign agents rather that ordinary Americans. So it is important that these agents are registered when they are lobbying Congress and government officials – not after.

Some of us may also find it of interest when a candidate is backed by foreign agents doing the work of other countries than probably do not have our interests in mind.

A trivial example of retroactive registration

I am still having a bit of trouble with the idea of retroactive registration as foreign agent.  The idea of retroactive registration seems a bit ridiculous.   My important objection are in the last 2 paragraphs above but here is an everyday example.

Suppose I own a car but decide I’d rather not spend my money on registering it with the state. Now suppose I am driving down the road and a policeman pulls me over and asks for my registration.

How forgiving will the law be when I say I have not registered my car but will retroactively register it soon?

Are the laws for ordinary folks but politicians and lobbyists get a pass?