Trump Advisers' Balkan Work Avoids FARA Filing as DOJ's 2010 Opinion Exempts Foreign Election Consulting
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Oct 13
Trump Advisers' Balkan Work Avoids FARA Filing as DOJ's 2010 Opinion Exempts Foreign Election Consulting
1 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Oct 13
Summary
James Blair and Chris LaCivita were not legally required to disclose recent consulting work in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, despite White House discomfort with the arrangement.
A 2010 Justice Department advisory opinion says U.S. political consultants working on foreign elections do not have to register under FARA, which targets efforts to influence U.S. public opinion and policymakers.
Blair and LaCivita were reportedly each paid hundreds of thousands of dollars through a Washington law firm for a few days of work in the Serb-run territory within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
LaCivita has also worked elsewhere in the Balkans: his firm was paid more than $1.6 million by Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha ahead of Albania’s May 2025 parliamentary elections.
Election consulting abroad is common for strategists in both parties, lawyers said, and experts described this case as outside the kind of foreign-influence activity FARA was designed to police.