Brits advising Harris must register as 'agents of a foreign principal,' election watchdog tells DOJ

A U.K. group that purports to police disinformation may have to register as "agents of a foreign principal" for alleged election interference, based on its interactions with U.S. policymakers including the attorney general of Connecticut, according to a federal complaint Thursday.

America First Legal formally asked the Justice Department to review the Center for Countering Digital Hate under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, noting its connections to the U.K. and Scottish Labour Party, the Parliament of each, and the White House. 

Nine days earlier, former Senate Finance Committee investigator Paul Thacker and Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi released their investigation based on leaked documents into CCDH's written plan to "kill [Elon] Musk's Twitter," now X, which was so important to the group it has been listed as "first item in the template of its monthly agenda notes" since January.

CCDH's founder Morgan McSweeney, reportedly "the brains" behind U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's rise to power and his new chief of staff, is even advising the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, Politico reported when she took over the top of the Democratic ticket this past summer.

McSweeney set up the Labour Party's affiliated think tank Labour Together at the same time as CCDH, in the wake of Labour's 2017 election gains, with 30 new members of Parliament.

"McSweeney is lionized, not just for a [Clinton campaign advisory James] Carville-style rightward tilt within the party, but for mastery of fundraising and dark money," Thacker and Taibbi wrote, and Labour Together "has been operating in the U.S. for several years through CCDH."

DOJ has not responded to a query on AFL's request by Just the News on Friday.

CCDH is already the subject of a House Judiciary Committee probe for the Biden administration using its "Disinformation Dozen" list to pressure social media to censor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. among others. AFL previously showed Biden counterterrorism officials sought CCDH's counsel.

CCDH also beat a lawsuit by X earlier this year alleging it illegally scraped tweets to document an increase in supposed hate speech since Musk's purchase and rebranding of Twitter, driving away its advertisers in the process.

It may have more trouble avoiding FARA, at least if a second Trump administration materializes.

"While CCDH is registered to operate in the United States as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, there is no material separation between it and the original entity of the same name established in the United Kingdom," AFL said Thursday. Tax records show three U.S. board members are also on the U.K. board and a fourth, an MP, stepped down from the latter July 11, the FARA letter notes.

CCDH's own "about" page says the two offices "collaborate together to fulfill the shared mission of both organizations … share a CEO, and the Leadership Team, comprised of employees of both organizations, reports to the CEO" Imran Ahmed, a longtime Labour strategist.

Two U.S.-only board members even represent pop star Olivia Rodrigo, who spoke at the White House July 14, 2021, to promote COVID-19 vaccines for "young and healthy" people, repeating the administration's disputed claims that an individual's vaccination protects "your friends and your family." It was Rodrigo's idea, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

The next day Psaki said the White House was "flagging problematic posts for Facebook" and alluded to CCDH's Disinformation Dozen, saying tech companies have given "extraordinary reach" to people spreading disinformation and Facebook specifically hosts the 12 who produce "65 percent of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms."

"The timing of these events indicates that CCDH US board members [Aleen Keshishian and Zack Morgenroth] were involved in discussions at the White House advocating for the deplatforming of the individual Americans" the group wanted censored, AFL's FARA letter says.

If the board members "'directly or indirectly' engaged in 'informing, advising, or in anyway representing' CCDH UK or the UK Labour Party 'in any public relations matter pertaining to' their interests and policies regarding internet censorship, they also appear to be required to register as foreign agents," AFL told the DOJ, quoting the law.

Eight days before CCDH published the Disinformation Dozen and a dozen Democratic attorneys general cited its work to demand Twitter and Facebook squelch "fraudulent information about coronavirus vaccines," Connecticut AG William Tong's counselor Rowan Kane "circulated an earlier draft of the letter" citing the then-unpublished CCDH report.

Kane asked them to sign on by close of business March 23, 2021, "the day before the report would be published," suggesting CCDH U.S. gave Tong's office a "non-public version" and "potentially coordinated with that office in drafting the letter," AFL told DOJ.

Other communications obtained by Thacker and Taibbi show a CCDH "task assignment" from March this year that reads "60 meetings on the [Capitol] Hill" and "Meeting with 16 congressional offices over the next two weeks to give updates on the Elon [Musk] lawsuit" – dismissed three weeks later – "and get a better understanding of tech policy priorities."

The duo said the meeting notes make it "obvious" that CCDH was promoting the "STAR framework" in the U.S., which would erode liability protections for platforms and create an "independent digital regulator dedicated to online safety" like Europe's Digital Services Act and U.K. Online Safety Act, which gives Ofcom authority to set fines for "uncooperative platforms."

Meeting participants also worried that they may be violating U.S. lobbying law, with a January meeting note saying "if it is anything that Congress could have a vote on, it counts as lobbying" and a February note that says CEO Ahmed "needs that [lobbying] to be checked, and if necessary register a c4 ASAP," meaning a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization.

Prime Minister Starmer has "suggested toughening" the Online Safety Act law to "impose a legal duty on social media companies to take down posts that they consider to be 'legal but harmful'" and his technology minister Peter Kyle "suggested using compulsory legal process to summon Mr. Musk to the United Kingdom," AFL told DOJ.

CCDH U.K.'s board includes Damian Collins, former U.K. under secretary of state for tech, and sitting member of the House of Lords Jonathan Oates, and it shared an address with Labour Together, whose executive director, Jonathan Ashworth, met with the Harris campaign at the Democratic National Convention, AFL said.

It took credit for demonetizing British publication The Canary for supposed misinformation and has used its U.S. affiliate to "advocate for similar censorship policies in the United States," which would "advance the UK Labour Party’s political and social agenda," the letter says.

AFL says its U.S. board members Simon Clark and Thomas Brookes must register under FARA.

Clark was a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, a principal in the Election Integrity Partnership and Virality Project "conspiracies with the federal government to censor speech on social media," and his work against "white supremacy" at the Center for American Progress "helped shape the White House’s Domestic Terrorism strategy," the group wrote in its 21-page request to the Justice Department. 

Brookes leads the Meliore Foundation, which funds "programmes focused on informing fact-based debate and decision-making," and the Global Strategic Communications Council, which coordinates "media campaigns for climate scientists, green NGOs" and Greta Thunberg.