SANDLER REIFF Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C.

Partner Josh Rosenstein shares thoughts on the Giuliani scandal with NBC News

There has been much controversy surrounding Rudy Giuliani and his involvement with the Trump-Ukraine scandal. Josh Rosenstein shared his thoughts with The New Republic and the Washington Post.

“Giuliani’s defense has been that…he was acting at the behest of the president,” Joshua Ian Rosenstein, a partner at Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock P.C., which specializes in lobbying compliance, tells The New Republic. “I don’t know what to say about that. I think it’s sort of astonishing, in a way, that we have sort of an unauthorized [person], not even a special government employee, who’s conducting diplomacy… Just saying you’re not a lobbyist ain’t gonna cut it.”

One possibility is that Giuliani “was actually representing these two individuals sort of as conduits for some foreign source of money, and making arrangements for them, for example, to participate in the political process—which as we know was an FEC violation,” Rosenstein says. “But if he knowingly facilitated an FEC violation, that’s problem number one. Problem number two is that’s pretty clearly a FARA violation, also.”

Partner Josh Rosenstein discusses Rudy Giuliani’s ties to the Trump-Ukraine scandal with USA Today.

“I think at the very least, the Department of Justice would be justified in taking a very close look at the arrangements that (Giuliani) has with these foreign principals. … Given the backdrop, given the new changes in enforcement priorities, this would seem to be a case that would be ripe for the DOJ to at least ask questions,” said Josh Rosenstein, a Washington, D.C. lawyer who advises clients on FARA.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Partner Josh Rosenstein shares thoughts on the Department of Justice’s efforts to crack down on the violators of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

“As Joshua Ian Rosenstein, a FARA specialist at Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., puts it, “DoJ’s new emphasis on FARA is a warning shot to foreign companies and their U.S. consultants, who are forced to grapple with a criminal law that is broad and complicated. Now is the time for foreign companies and their U.S. consultants to reexamine their FARA compliance.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

Partner Josh Rosenstein’s comments on FARA filings have been featured on the front page of Politico Influence.

Gregory Craig, a former top legal adviser to President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton, was found not guilty of lying to the Justice Department for concealing media contacts in relation to his work for the Ukrainian government.

The trial for Craig was “an unusual case with regard to the fact pattern,” said Josh Rosenstein, who advises clients on FARA compliance. “But if you pull back the lens a little, you see the latest in a string of enforcement activities, coupled with a restructuring of the FARA unit and a recommitment to using FARA as part of the Department of Justice’s national security apparatus. And I don’t see that changing.”

“The interesting question now is whether the department will be more hesitant to jump right into criminal prosecutions because of this — what I think people are viewing as an embarrassing loss for them,” said Joshua Ian Rosenstein, a FARA expert and attorney with Sandler, Reiff, Lamb, Rosenstein & Birkenstock.

Whatever officials decide in terms of prosecutions, Rosenstein said he thinks it’s unlikely the department will pull back significantly from enforcing FARA more broadly.

“It’s unlikely and may be almost impossible for them to completely revert to where they were before,” he said. “They may be more circumspect in which prosecutions they bring, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to be more aggressive than they were in years prior.”

You can read Partner Josh Rosenstein’s comments on the acquittal in the following articles:

Washington Post

NPR

POLITICO

Bloomberg

Dara Lindenbaum is recognized by her alma mater, George Washington University Law School, for her outstanding efforts and achievements in the high stakes world of political and election law.

Dara Lindenbaum was selected as a 2019 Rising Star in the District of Columbia edition of Super Lawyers.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area. While up to 5 percent of the lawyers in a state are named to Super Lawyers, no more than 2.5 percent are named to Rising Stars.

To learn more about the Super Lawyers or Rising Star process, click here: Super Lawyers

Chinese telecom company Huawei has retained a radio station in Nevada in the efforts to boost it’s image in the United States. Recent lobbying disclosures have suggested that Las Vegas Public Radio Inc. will work with the telecom network to develop and air programs to help improve relations between China and the U.S.

Grassroots communications, such as radio programming, do not typically fall under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, said Joshua Rosenstein, an attorney with Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock. Public communications on behalf of a foreign interests are generally governed by the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse have requested that the Secretary of the Senate launch an investigation to determine whether or not the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has violated lobbying disclosure laws. The Senators believe that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may not be in compliance with the laws because they did not disclose any lobbying groups on its recent report. The U.S. Chamber responded that they continue to be in compliance with all lobbying laws created by Congress.

“It does seem unusual that the Chamber has not disclosed affiliated entities but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily in violation,” Josh Rosenstein of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock wrote in an email to PI. “It is possible that the Chamber is fully justified in not disclosing any members because no member meets the definition of an affiliate.”

You can read the rest of the article here.