How Foreign Money Keeps Slipping Into U.S. Elections

Lawsuits in Maine and Minnesota show how tricky it is just to define foreign election spending.

Foreign Money

A proposed hydropower transmission line that would have run from Canada through the woods in the north of the state was at the center of Maine’s battle over foreign spending in elections. Robert F. Bukaty/AP

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, was sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2022 after he helped funnel money from foreigners into a U.S. election. But when a Quebec-owned utility company spent $22 million on a ballot initiative in Maine, it was legal — a contradiction that has unsettled campaign finance experts and led to a series of lawsuits challenging who can and can’t spend in U.S. elections.

At its root is a deceptively tricky question: What exactly is foreign money?

In an increasingly global world, corporations and foreign governments are making the case that partial foreign ownership should be OK regarding election spending. And courts, reluctant to accidentally hamstring free speech rights guaranteed by the Citizens United decision, are so far siding with corporations and foreign governments for this “hands-off” approach.