Fox News: GOP bill cracks down on ‘loophole’ allowing foreign donors to pump dark money into US elections
Senate Republicans are introducing a bill on Wednesday that aims to prevent foreign nationals from improperly influencing American elections in response to a report outlining how a foreign billionaire allegedly funneled almost $250 million into a liberal dark money network that poured almost $100 million into nationwide ballot campaigns.
The Prevent Foreign Interference in American Elections Act, being introduced by Tennessee GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty, states that it will “amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to further restrict contributions of foreign nationals.”
The move comes after the Senate was briefed on a new report from Americans for Public Trust that shows Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss has sent more than $243 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund which then invested $97.6 million in ballot campaigns across 25 states over the past decade. Those states included the key swing states of Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, and Nevada.
The tens of millions of dollars from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has also been funded by George Soros, went into ballot measures promoting abortion access, lessening drug penalties and prison sentences, raising the minimum wage, automatic voter registration and other progressive causes.
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Caitlin Sutherland, who told Fox News Digital last year that Wyss is the “most influential figure in politics that you’ve never heard of”, wrote in the report’s forward that Sixteen Thirty Fund is using Wyss’s money as part of its “war chest” to “support massive get out the vote drives, issue advocacy campaigns bolstering President Biden’s agenda, liberal pet projects from abortion to immigration, and attack ads against Republican lawmakers.”
Hagerty’s bill would clarify that the existing foreign-national ban on “indirect” contributions covers attempts to circumvent the ban through intermediaries or instructions which conservatives have long argued poses a threat to Democracy when funds are dumped into dark money groups inside the U.S. from abroad.
“Foreign nationals are prohibited from donating to U.S. political candidates, committees and super PACs but there is no federal law prohibiting foreign nationals from donating to ballot committees,” the report’s conclusion explains. “Some state laws exist to try to prevent this type of foreign influence, but in a majority of states, foreign nationals like Hansjorg Wyss, are allowed to write blank checks to fund ballot issues that could prioritize their interests over those of the residents of the state.”
“If state and federal law permits a Swiss billiionaire to fund ballot initiative campaigns, there is nothing stopping U.S. adversaries from Communist China, Russia, or North Korea from doing the same.”
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