FARA is the law that’s supposed to stop foreign governments from secretly funding political operations in America. If you’re working for a foreign government to influence U.S. policy, you have to register with the Justice Department and disclose it. But there’s an exemption for media companies, because forcing journalists to register as “foreign agents” would violate the First Amendment.

Epstein understood that you could exploit this exemption to form a media company, fund it with foreign money run through shell corporations, hire American content creators who think they’re working for a legitimate media outfit, and boom: you’ve got foreign government propaganda flowing into millions of American voters’ feeds, and it’s all technically legal.