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Creditcard this is FRESH AIR.
Im Dave Davies.
The russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election alerted many Americans to the vulnerability of our democratic institutions to tampering by forces from abroad.
Our guest today, investigative reporter Casey Michelle, argues in a new book that the threat is far greater than we realize.
Most of it, he says, comes from american citizens willing to promote the interests of brutal, undemocratic and anti american regimes.
For a price.
American lobbying for foreign governments in the US isnt new, he says.
He cites examples from the 19th century and from the 1930s, when an american public relations guru made a fortune whitewashing the record of Nazi Germany.
But he argues its far more extensive now.
And some of the players are surprising.
They include not just professional lobbyists, law firms and publicists, but former us government officials and members of Congress from both parties, as well as universities and think tanks who accept eye popping sums from foreign governments.
There have been laws for years requiring registration and disclosure of these efforts, but Michelle says they've been mostly ineffective.
Casey Michelle is director of the combating kleptocracy program with the Human Rights foundation.
He's the author of a previous book titled American Kleptocracy.
His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and other publications.
His new book is foreign agents how american lobbyists and lawmakers threaten democracy around the world.