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Nigel Farage hired a far-right political guru’s ‘consigliere’, as his foreign agent to represent him in American politics, who broke US federal law for over a year before making her required registration and disclosures, according to a new US Government filing.
As Reform UK MP for Clacton since 4 July, 2024, Farage is best known as “Mr. Brexit.” However, for more than a year before he stood for Parliament and for months afterward, Farage deployed Alexandra Preate as his un-registered US agent until she finally reported her activities 18 months late, on 27 September this year.
Preate is best known for being dubbed “consigliere” to the far-right political strategist Steven Bannon, who was released from prison on Tuesday.
Recent coverage indicated Farage may have broken the UK Parliament’s code for the House of Commons by failing to register free services from Preate whilst a sitting MP.
Penalties for breaking the code include a written apology, a verbal apology in the Commons, or suspension.
US federal law requires the political agents of foreign persons to register and disclose their activities within 10-days of starting representation under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Preate only disclosed her representation of Farage on 27 September, 2024, though her work began in March 2023 and continued covertly for nearly 18 months.
This violates the law according to the US Department of Justice’s FAQs on registration as a foreign agent:
Under Section 612(a) of FARA, parties must file a registration statement within 10 days of having agreed to act as an agent of a foreign principal. A party may not begin to act as an agent of a foreign principal before registering.
FARA requires registration and disclosures by anyone representing a foreign principal which could be an individual, a political party, government or corporation, unless they’re a registered lobbyist under the Lobbying Disclosure Act which covers nonpolitical and commercial representation.
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Penalties for a criminal violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act can range from civil suits to restrain the activities until registration and disclosure is complete, all the way to criminal penalties and stiff fines, per the same US Department of Justice website FAQ:
The penalty for a willful violation of FARA is imprisonment for not more than five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. Certain violations are considered misdemeanors, with penalties of imprisonment of not more than six months, a fine of not more than $5,000, or both. There are also civil enforcement provisions that empower the Attorney General to seek an injunction requiring registration under FARA (for applicable activities) or correcting a deficient registration statement.
For a politician whose signature issue is for the UK to go it alone in the world without the EU, along with xenophobic anti-immigration policies, Farage has long maintained close ties to the online, international political movements stewarded by Bannon, who served as Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman.
Farage is also a freshly minted GB News presenter, who initially grew his fame by making appearances on the Kremlin state media channel Russia Today, later known as the RT network. When asked by email about the total of his earnings from Russian television, Farage did not reply.
Alexandra Preate founded and runs CapitolHQ, a media relations and crisis PR firm in Washington DC. She’s from Scranton, Pennsylvania where her father Ernie Preate, ran as a Republican for Pennsylvania Attorney General in 1988 and won two terms, only to leave office a year early and plead guilty to racketeering charges.
The day before the 6 January 2021 insurrection against America’s Capitol, Preate later testified to Congress that she was with Bannon at the Trump Townhouse suite inside the Trump Hotel for a VIP presentation, alongside White House advisor Peter Navarro (both of whom were convicted of Contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the events of that day). Bannon was released from prison on Tuesday, having served four months due to that conviction.
Farage and Bannon openly discussed entering a full partnership only three months before the latter’s first felony arrest for wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. Bannon was pardoned for those federal charges, only to be investigated again and charged with multiple felonies again under state law for the same crimes, for which he’ll face trial later this December.
Preate also told House investigators about encountering two other notables in the run up to the January 6th Trump insurrection, namely Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Bill Bachenberg who served as a “contingent elector” for Trump in Pennsylvania during 2020 and who is now a Vice President of the politically powerful National Rifle Association, and top fundraiser Caroline Wren, considered to be the logistical planner behind the events of 6 January.
Farage has made numerous trips to northern central Pennsylvania, like his visit to the city of Wilkes-Barre dating back to 2018, to raise funds for Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Lou Barletta, and again in 2020.
For the past year and a half, Farage used Preate to arrange high-profile political speeches across the United States ranging from the 2023 Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) event outside Washington DC, to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
But that wasn’t all.
Farage also used the woman once known as shadow press secretary to Bannon while he was serving as a White House senior advisor, to attend an event thrown by the Conservative Partnership Institute, whose senior partner is Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
The former North Carolina Congressman is indicted in two-states over acts allegedly taken in furtherance of candidate Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
This past May, Farage also appeared in Tampa, Florida at Stovall House, a venue created and owned by a major supporter of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis named Blake Casper, whose family made a fortune on McDonald’s franchises. Defeated by Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries, DeSantis still holds significant executive power in America’s third largest state while his lame duck term runs through January 2027.
In addition to in-person events, Preate booked or arranged for Farage to appear on a panoply of US right-wing broadcasts including the Charlie Kirk Show, Fox Business Larry Kudlow show, War Room, Seb Gorka Show, Newsmax, and WABC radio.
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Lastly, according to Preate’s filings, Farage’s agent attempted, but failed to land him, a speaking gig at Liberty University, the evangelical Christian school who forced Jerry Falwell Jr. to resign, after he, the founder’s son, was exposed to have led a hypocritical private life, including his, and his wife’s unusual relationship with a pool boy in Miami Beach, Florida. Formerly a powerhouse institution within America’s evangelical Christian right, the entire situation is well documented in the film “God Forbid.”
What was the purported fee for all of this work which appears to have been illegally rendered without reporting to the US Department of Justice for fifteen months?
Nothing. At least, that is what Alexandria Preate told the Department of Justice in her filings.
It costs $305 to register one’s self or company as a foreign agent.
When asked for comment by phone message, the Department of Justice’s FARA unit did not respond.
Neither Farage nor Preate responded to a detailed list of questions sent by email.