At long last, The Scrapbook has developed proof of foreign meddling in our democracy. Justice Department documents lay the plot bare: a secret deal between a foreign power and two former administration officials at the highest echelons of the U.S. government.
The officials, The Scrapbook has learned, are to receive $25,000 from the foreign power, plus a retainer of $25,000 a month. In exchange for that cash, the operatives schemed with the U.S. media to shape favorable coverage. Targets include journalists at publications such as the Financial Times, the Economist, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Business Insider, as well as “top-tier television and radio” such as CNN, Fox, and NPR; Sunday morning talk shows; and “news programs such as Charlie Rose.”
Justice Department documents also reveal the plot to plant favorable coverage with newspaper editorial pages and blogs, which “have tremendous sway with policymakers.” The officials confessed that they “use these pages regularly to influence legislation, regulation and public opinion.”
The Scrapbook reels at the enormity of it all.
The two sometime government officials renting their names and their connections are Anita Dunn, a former communications director for President Obama, and Stephen Krupin, once a senior Obama speechwriter. They now work for SKDKnickerbocker, a political consulting firm. Their client is—gasp!—the government of Ontario, Canada, which is seeking to raise its Washington profile on trade issues. Lobbyists working for foreign governments must register with the Justice Department, and the details of the arrangements are public records.
You didn’t think we were talking about something else, now, did you?
There’s nothing inherently criminal about representing foreign powers. In fact, it’s common in Washington: The Justice Department says there were 1,799 “foreign agents” representing 527 international clients as of the end of September. That’s a lot of foreign meddling—all of it (well, at least most of it) legal.
