Press Releases

Today, Rep. Jack Bergman renewed his call on the Justice Department to initiate an investigation into the Stimson Center for violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

Over six weeks ago, Rep. Jack Bergman sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting an investigation into the Stimson Center and Senior Advisor Debra Decker for apparent FARA violations with regard to contributions and advocacy related to pending cybersecurity legislation. The letter has not received any response from either the Attorney General or anyone on his staff at the Justice Department.

The Stimson Center, a 501(c)3 charitable organization exempt from federal taxation, saw fit to violate U.S. law by lobbying against the Homeland and Cyber Threat (HACT) Act (HR 1607) without registering as an agent of a foreign government. The HACT Act, originally introduced by Rep. Bergman in the 116th Congress, maintains broad bipartisan support after having passed the House last year as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Passage of this bill is critical to combat the ever-increasing threat of cyber-attacks targeting our national infrastructure, including small businesses, schools, energy companies, transportation systems, technology companies, and our food supply. In sanctioning Russia for the SolarWinds attack, President Biden acknowledged the “undue burden on the mostly private sector victims who must bear the unusually high cost of mitigating this incident.”

The HACT Act seeks to lessen this burden on American businesses and citizens by allowing them to recover damages directly from the foreign governments responsible for these malicious cyber-attacks.

In email communications between Debra Decker and several Congressional offices, she admitted that she had “reached out to the State [department] Legal Advisors’ office myself on the bill,” while repeatedly urging Congressional staff to “get Justice Department and State Department input on the bill.” Decker worked hard to undermine confidence in the HACT Act, frequently citing unfounded concerns about the bill and recommending that Congress “attempt to coordinate such legislation with allie[d] [countries] who could adopt the legislation.”  

“Unregistered lobbying activity is, in itself, enough to warrant investigation,” said Rep. Bergman. “But Debra Decker’s lobbying efforts on behalf of the Stimson Center raises grave concerns of ongoing foreign government influence operations that directly undermine our Nation's legislative process.”

The State of Qatar is a major sponsor of terrorism worldwide and one of the most notorious sponsors of cyberattacks against U.S. entities. Qatar is also a major funder of the Stimson Center - donating at least $600,000 in 2019 according to the Stimson Center’s own website, the last year that funding is publicly available.

Stimson has an unusually close working relationship with the State of Qatar in recent years. They actively partnered with the Doha Forum, a conference series conducted by the State of Qatar to target international policy and media elites in order to maximize their influence in the U.S. and the West. As part of this ongoing collaboration, the State of Qatar appears to be the sole funder of the Stimson Center’s program called “Just Security 2020,” whose stated mission includes working on issues related to cyberattacks. Stimson’s Qatar-funded program that deals with cybersecurity is “built around three interconnected tracks of activity,” with the first being “Policy dialogues and public/policymaker engagement.”

Directly related to Just Security 2020, there were multiple meetings and communications between registered Qatari agents Katherine Lewis and/or Kaylee Otterbacher on behalf the Embassy of Qatar and Richard Ponzio, who is part of the Stimson Center’s Cyber Security Project Team with Debra Decker. These interactions occurred in the months before a conference hosted by the Stimson Center that discussed cyberattacks, and which prominently featured as a speaker a Qatari government official from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Rep. Bergman noted, “It's clear from the documents that I've seen that Qatar is behind a massive influence operation on Capitol Hill—an operation that not only raises the specter of flagrant FARA violations but also implicates the intricate network of “reporters” who have obtained press credentials representing government propaganda news outlets like Al Jazeera.”

It is no surprise that foreign governments carrying out cyber-attacks targeting American citizens would oppose the HACT Act legislation. It is surprising that the Stimson Center, an organization subsidized by American taxpayers, would lobby on behalf of such foreign governments without informing Members of Congress and their staff.

FARA explicitly requires the registration of, and disclosures by, an “agent of a foreign principal” who, either directly or through another person, within the United States engages in “political activities” on behalf of a foreign principal, or represents the interests of the foreign principal before any agency or official of the U.S. government. The Stimson Center appears to have met this standard.

“The Department of Justice must investigate this activity as a potential violation of FARA law,” Rep. Bergman said in a statement today. “I look forward to Attorney General Garland’s reply to my original letter, and to the opportunity to pose questions on the matter when he testifies before Congress.”