Booker’s presidential campaign took another $1,500 from Glenn Gritzner, a partner at Mercury Public Affairs.

None of the lobbying firms, except for Dentons, responded to a request for comment by email. Neither did the congressional offices and campaign staff of Kirsten Gilibrand, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker. Gabbard’s congressional office forwarded a request for comment to her presidential campaign, which has not responded as of press time.

The National Interest did not find any donations to Democratic frontrunners Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Ver.) from known foreign agents during their latest Senate campaigns, although both took money from employees of firms with FARA-registered activities.

The last time Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden ran for office was 2012, as then-President Barack Obama’s running mate.

Many of the top Democratic candidates have sworn off lobbyist donations in the 2020 race, but foreign money has already begun to trickle in, presenting candidates with a choice: leave the money on the table, or expose themselves to accusations of foreign influence peddling.

The National Interest found that the rate of new FARA registrations has jumped in the past year and a half. The average since the end of World War II has been 6.7 new registrants per month, and it had fallen to 5.1 per month under President Barack Obama. But since March 2017, an average of 10.2 new foreign agents have registered every month.

The spike in FARA registrations may be a sign of increased scrutiny rather than an unprecedented flood of foreign cash. Over the last two years, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has found himself in serious legal trouble for $530,000 in undisclosed lobbying contracts linked to the Turkish government.

“Historically not a major feature of the Justice Department’s national security enforcement program, FARA has come to play an increasingly prominent role in the government’s response to foreign influence operations in the United States,” wrote David Laufman, former chief of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Section under both the Obama and Trump administrations, in September 2018. “[T]he Justice Department’s more muscular enforcement posture has resulted in a substantial increase in FARA registrations, including some high-profile registrations.”

Foreign spending in U.S. elections will be under a much brighter spotlight than ever before. And high-profile Democrats will have to choose how to reckon with the legacy of their past donors.

Matthew Petti is a national security reporter at the National Interest and a former Foreign Language Area Studies fellow at Columbia University. His work has been published in Reason and America Magazine.

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