Foreign Money in Elections
How foreign governments and actors attempt to influence democratic elections through financial channels and why it is so difficult to stop.
A Problem Older Than You Think
Foreign interference in elections is not a recent phenomenon. The United States itself has a long history of intervening in other countries' elections: the CIA helped overthrow democratically elected leaders in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), and Chile (1973) and covertly funded pro-Western parties across Europe during the Cold War. What changed in 2016 was that a major foreign power, Russia, used financial and digital channels to interfere in the US election itself.
US law prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to federal, state, or local campaigns. The Federal Election Campaign Act and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act explicitly ban foreign donations. But these laws were written for a world of direct contributions, not one where money flows through shell companies, social media advertising purchased with cryptocurrency, and 501(c)(4) nonprofits that do not disclose donors.
