About freedom of the press. It starts live at 7 00 p. M. Eastern. Until then, part of todays washington journal. Al continues. Host we are joined by josh rudolph with the alliance for securing democracy, here to talk to us about foreign interference on campaign 2020. Tell us about the alliance for securing democracy. How are you funded . To see you. Nice the alliance for sustaining democracy is a transatlantic think tank organization. Forocused on stopping funding dont take money from government or anyone who has a special or vested interest. Foundations, American Families of entrepreneurs who value democracy and care about protecting it from foreign adversaries. Host we are having you want to talk to about your brand to report that came out in august. How did you put this report together, the scope of what you looked at to come to the conclusions you did . Ofst we are all aware russias cyber attacks. Shows thet interference is just as threatening to democracy. They have funneled 300 million more than 100 times. New caseswo or three a year. In the middle of the last decade it is now 1530 new episodes each year of russian donors in france, lawmakers support in germany. Government sending donors on secret mission in the asia pacific and elsewhere. A lot of these secret agents tried to buy influence with hillary clinton. Asking foreign governments for help five times across two elections. Legal. Actually the real amount of contribution to our research has been all of this activity we are talking about into the most commonly exploited we worked with 100 leading experts across parts of policy solutions. Host from the alliance for securing democracy, it is easy to understand charter. Authoritarian regimes to secretly funnel money. 15 , straw donors 22 , companies 11 , nonprofits 13 . 11 , online outlets 10 . A very small amount for technology. People dont understand these online ads. Are fake ads about campaigns. Is that the sort of major you are looking at . Guest in some cases it is just manipulative. , whicholitical ads parties are not supposed to be able to purchase. Of their main vectors in 2016. What are report on money focuses on is the financial element. The Financial Support for those ads or entire outlets you could buy, or the channel through which you could get money directly. Technology companies in this country have taken some steps to identify and prevent some of that activity that was identified in 2016, correct . Taken some have steps to build up the defenses. You saw just yesterday they now publicize the takedowns of inauthentic behavior. They collaborate with law enforcement. Is the constant game of whack a mole. They are developing new ways to evade our defenses. What the Technology Companies have tried to do is actually voluntary, congress has done nothing. We are making progress. It is a fight every day. Term aligned finance, defined that for us. Guest it is basically covert funding of political actors. A regime connected oligarch funneling a million dollars, the average amount towards whatever side of the political spectrum or election that regime favors in the target country. A Major National election through shell donors and nonprofits as you would with that pie chart, theres a whole range of financial avenues to interviewing democracy interfere in democracy. They may not involve money per se. Orther it is gifts blackmarket media services. Theres a whole financial toolkit. Better off going into the 2020 election . Are we safer from the sort of influence . Are you more concerned . I wish i could say on the whole we are more safe. It is a mixed bag. A lot of good, important Technical Work has been done over the past four years whether the federal government, departments, and agencies with the state and local government. Tracking social media manipulation campaigns that the platforms are now doing. The fbiinance front, has eyes on this more so than they did four years ago. It is not enough and it is not coordinated throughout the government the way it should be. That is the technical front. More work is being done. At the same time, politics are making us weak and vulnerable. Of bills innumber the house that pass in the senate. The president seems incapable of seeing our country through anything other than the lens of his own personal political needs. He even welcomes the interference. Is entire political system calcified around this being an issue. Get to some of that proposed legislation in just a bit here in our conversation with josh rudolph. For those of you who support joe call and kamala harris, 202 7488001 if you support donald trump in mike pence. The maligned influence of foreign actors and u. S. Campaigns is the u. S. Foreign toe title two and i want remind viewers it shall be unlawful for foreign nationals directly or indirectly to make a contribution, donation of money or anything of value to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation in connection with a federal, state, or local election in connection or an expenditure of electioneering communication. About when was this passed into law . How much does it need to be updated . Guest it is longstanding, this statute. After really built out watergate there was woodward and following the money laundered through mexico. This is a longstanding ban on foreign sources in our election. Fart of the studies thus have focused on the challenge of foreign money. T starts with the laws that is in the United States in other countries. The library of congress, they look at this and found it is illegal. Our research has been quite different. Our Research Starts with the bad activity. The cases of financial interference. We see perpetrated around the world throughout the past decade. We figure out why they were able to do that. What legal loopholes were they able to exploit around that statute . Host in response to what has happened in 2016 and since, democrats have proposed the shield act which would create a duty to report all Campaign Assistance from foreign governments. It would improve transparency of online political advertisement. Changes restrict between candidates and foreign governments and prohibit practices about voting procedures. Where does that stand in terms of passage in the u. S. House . House it passed in the almost a year ago. Then went to the senate and it was watered down in a couple of notable ways in what was called the fire act. Even the more limited version that did not apply to lawmakers reporting to congress. That version did not pass. The senate was able to get it through committee but they tried a and couldntnda do it. We have all of these solutions that we developed. That being one of them. It is a good proposal. We dont have the political build to understand this is a National Security threat on a bipartisan basis. That is the biggest challenge to the immediate. It becomes politicized. Any of these particular policies, we need our leaders to stand together and say this is not about any one candidate, party, or election. It is a matter of National Security. Have to come before all personal or partisan loyalties. Host your report came out about the same time as the Senate Intelligence committee released their bipartisan report on russian interference in the 2016 election. Do you find any similarities in their reports . Was an important report. First and foremost because it was bipartisan. That was an important step. Compacts t 140 contact between the Trump Campaign and the russia side. Hat was quite shocking showed all of these what theys between identified as a full on russian Intelligence Officer in one case on the u. S. Side. An important investigation about the contact. The only other thing i will say about
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