A group of senators has proposed a bill to get “dark money” from wealthy foreign nationals, who overwhelmingly support left-wing causes, out of U.S. elections.
The Preventing Foreign Interference in American Elections Act (PFAEA) was unveiled by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) in a Breitbart op-ed in which he called out Democrats for “years of hysteria over Russiagate and alleged foreign influence in American elections” despite their allegedly being the main beneficiaries from the financial patronage of foreign billionaires.
Hagerty said his bill would close a loophole that such wealthy foreigners have used to circumvent a federal law prohibiting foreign nationals from contributing to U.S. political campaigns or parties.
The senator cited a report by The New York Times that detailed a purported money funneling scheme involving two entities, the Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund, describing the operation as a “daisy chain of opaque organizations that mask the ultimate recipients of [the] money.”
Hagerty noted that the two entities gave over $135 million in four years to a Washington, D.C. nonprofit called the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which distributed millions in 2018 and 2020 to super PACs to support left-wing causes and political campaigns, including President Joe Biden’s.
An investigation by Americans for Public Trust (APT) found that Sixteen Thirty Fund has spent almost $100 million on ballot issues in 25 states over a 10-year period. According to APT, top donors to Sixteen Thirty Fund include dual citizen billionaires Pierre Omidyar and George Soros and their 501(c)(3) New Venture Fund. But another name on that list, Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, is responsible for funneling more than $243 million to Sixteen Thirty Fund.
Even though Wyss has been busy using his millions to shape the American political landscape, he is on record telling a Swiss newspaper he “never felt the need to become an American” because the process was “too complicated,” per APT.
Hagerty said his bill would cut the daisy chain by outlawing “foreign nationals from using instructions, intermediaries, or conduits to engage in prohibited U.S. election-related activity.” It would also allegedly close loopholes that currently allow foreign nationals to fund “ballot harvesting, get-out-the-vote activity, promoting a particular political party, or election administration activity to prevent a repeat of the ‘Zuckerbucks’ of 2020.”
Zuckerbucks was how critics referred to the millions of dollars spent by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for “safe” election administration during the COVID-19 lockdowns, which some claim was a get-out-the-vote operation in support of Democrats.
Hagerty also noted that the legislation includes safeguards for free speech and Americans’ privacy rights.
The Dallas Express reached out to Sixteen Thirty Fund and the Wyss Foundation for comment on the bill and Hagerty’s statements but did not receive a response by publication.
