As was recommended in 2016 by the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Justice, and recently announced by the Department, today DOJ released anonymized versions of several dozen opinions it has provided over the last few decades regarding the application of the Foreign Agents Registration Act to particular sets of circumstances. Copies of these opinions are now available here: https://www.justice.gov/nsd-fara/advisory-opinions.

To be sure: the realities of FARA’s opinion process and the limits of what DOJ was able to release necessarily limit the depth and range of the conclusions that can be drawn from these opinions. Nevertheless, both individually and as a whole, the opinions provide useful insights into how the Department has interpreted FARA itself and the regulations that implement it in a wide range of particular circumstances.

You can read the rest of Joe Birkenstock’s observations on the new FARA “Rule 2” Opinions here: Memo on New DOJ Rule 2 Opinion Release.