Fractured Realities: Democracy in the Age of Foreign Influence, Billionaire Donors, and Disinformation

“There’s two systems of justice in the U.S. when it comes to foreign influence – there’s one for America’s friends, there’s another for its enemies,” said Ben Freeman, Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute. “And America’s friends are getting away with everything with impunity.”

Speaking at NIAC’s 2024 Symposium on a panel discussion focused on threats to democracy, Freeman discussed the “hypocrisy of the U.S. response to disinformation into malign foreign influence campaigns.” He noted the example of Saudi Arabia investing $2 billion in Jared Kushner’s investment fund as “just a fraction of what Saudi Arabia has done, post-Khashoggi to…literally buy back its status in the West.” Freeman continued that “we’ve seen more and more billions just pouring in from the public investment fund across a number of different sectors – the gaming sector, Hollywood, arts, museums, charitable contributions.”

Freeman and Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director at DAWN, discussed the revolving door of U.S. government officials securing lucrative board positions and consulting jobs for foreign countries as an effective kick-back for services rendered while in government. Whitson noted how some – like Senator Bob Menendez receiving bribes from the Egyptian government – were investigated for foreign influence operations, yet Israel has yet to undergo the same scrutiny despite “front-page” reporting on its influence operations in the U.S. which have even targeted U.S. lawmakers. 

Ryan Grim, reporter at Drop Site News and the moderator of this panel, dug into the operation behind Project Esther – a right-wing political strategy associated with Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation aimed at silencing domestic criticism of Israel – with Lily Greenberg Call, a former Biden Administration Political Appointee and the first Jewish official to resign from her position in protest of U.S. support for the Israeli war on Gaza. Greenberg Call warned that the idea is another iteration of ongoing efforts to “separate Jews and Palestinians and to separate Jews from other minority groups” as well as “define anti-semitism in a certain way and to demonize people who are standing in solidarity with Palestinians.”

While anti-semitism – prejudice and discrimination toward the Jewish people based on their identity – has a long and ugly history, the effort to paint valid criticism of the Israeli government as anti-semitic has insulated a foreign state from scrutiny of actions that have violated U.S. and international law. As Whitson added to Greenberg Call’s remarks, the weaponization of anti-semitism is another “assault on speech combined with a massive disinformation campaign” with an aim to “censor and silence pro-Palestine advocacy.”

Kombiz Lavasany, a campaign strategist specializing in domestic, progressive, and Democratic causes and NIAC Action board member, spoke specifically to the implications of the Iran Disinformation campaign, which was a program funded by the State Department under President Trump’s first term that was shut down for engaging in domestic propaganda operations. Lavasany highlighted how the campaign sought to undermine journalists, researchers, advocates and civil society groups including NIAC through online campaigns to label them as “pawns of the regime” and other false smears. He expanded on how similar disinformation efforts surged to unprecedented heights during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement. Concurrent with the seminal protests in Iran, he said, an online effort began  to target prominent Iranian Americans in civic life, whom Lavsany noted were “journalists at the New York Times, journalists at Politico, think tankers, people at NIAC, independent journalists.” These efforts, which Lavasany described as derogatory and often aimed at silencing progressive women, attempted to destabilize the civic work and influence of these individuals and groups by falsely labeling them as arms of Iran’s government.

Lavasany alluded to the possibility of state funding backing these disinformation campaigns, stating “it is a difficult thing to move public opinion, but it is even more difficult to move public opinion when you have a state that is invested on the other side on a political issue.” Echoing Freeman’s previous remarks, Lavasany also underscored that while “we should be calling it out with Russia, we should be calling it out with Iran,” there exists a double standard when it comes to Israel wherein it is never held accountable for its direct interference with democracy and with American citizens who work in Congress, the media, or civil society, as exemplified in part by the Iran disinformation and individual targeting that Lavasany raised.

The panelists also focused on pending legislation (H.R. 9495) that would empower the Trump administration to unilaterally label non-profit organizations as  “terrorist-supporting” and strip their non-profit status without due process. “These are not really bills designed to better insulate the U.S. against malign foreign influence,” said Freeman. “They are bills that are really designed to punish specific countries and could potentially be a huge stifler of free speech in the U.S.” The bill is widely viewed as a tool to silence organizations that have advocated against the war in Gaza or been critical of Israel.

Whitson observed that the “proposed legislation is itself an example of foreign influence in that it is a bill that is being pushed for the sole and exclusive purpose of benefiting a foreign state – Israel. And, obviously, it’s no news to anyone that Israel and its supporters have very strong financial influence with elected officials. And the way that they are now choosing to use that muscle is not only to elect officials who support Israel or get officials who are critical of Israel removed from office, but actually to legislate silencing Americans.”

Whitson further expanded that, “In a sense it is a mirror image of the disinformation campaigns of foreign governments in that, on the one hand, they want to pump disinformation to the American public. On the other hand, they want to make sure that they can control the information that the American public receives by shutting down organizations whose viewpoints they don’t like.”

H.R. 9495 failed in a special vote in the House shortly after the panel after dozens of Democrats switched their votes to oppose it. However, it narrowly passed through regular procedure and now goes to the Senate, where it is unlikely to pass this year while Democrats retain control. It is expected to be fast-tracked next year when the Republicans have control of both chambers in Congress and the White House.