THANKS, DONALD:

For years, there's been an open secret in Washington power circles: It's highly profitable, if morally dubious, to secretly promote the interests of foreign governments, dictators, or oppressive regimes.   

Then came Paul Manafort's indictment.

At the end of October, Trump's former campaign manager was charged for working for Ukraine for nearly a decade without telling the U.S. government. Special Counsel Bob Mueller, who's overseeing the Russia investigation, could also bring a similar case against former Trump adviser Mike Flynn for over half a million dollars' worth of work he did as a foreign agent of Turkey, including writing an op-ed in strong support of the country on Election Day.

"That served as a wake-up call to current FARA registrants that they can't make errors that they know are errors."

Now, D.C. has snapped to attention. Lobbyists and media consultants working on behalf of foreign governments, known as foreign agents, are scrambling to lawyer up and tell the government, as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). And because of decades of non-disclosure, some congressional offices have even been going through their records to check who, exactly, they've been meeting with.

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