514. Casey Michel - Foreign Agent Lobbyists are Acting as Foot-Soldiers for Brutal Authoritarian Regimes

For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they've not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they've secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, journalist Casey Michel contends some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself. These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. Many of these lobbyists have transformed into proxies for dictators and strongmen wherever they can be found. And for years, they've escaped scrutiny. These lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry - a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised the Nazis on how to sway American audiences. They include people like Paul Manafort, who invented lobbying as we know it - and who then took his talents to autocrats from Ukraine to the Philippines, and then back to the White House. And they now include an increasing number of Americans elsewhere: in law firms and consultancies, among PR specialists and former lawmakers, and even within think tanks and universities. ---------- Casey Michel is head of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation, focusing on how dictators and autocrats use illicit finance and dirty money to remain in power. He’s the author of AMERICAN KLEPTOCRACY, on America's transformation into an offshore haven. His new book, FOREIGN AGENTS, will examine the explosion of the foreign lobbying industry in Washington, and how that industry has helped entrench dictatorships and upend American foreign policy. FOREIGN AGENTS will be published in 2024. ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- LINKS: http://www.caseymichel.com/ https://x.com/cjcmichel https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseymichel/ https://www.rusi.org/people/michel https://www.hudson.org/experts/1381-casey-michel ---------- BOOKS: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/american-kleptocracy/ American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World's Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History (2021) Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World (2024) ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ----------