Foreign influence on policy

Foreign influence on policy is the shaping of US official action by foreign-government priorities, payments, or coercion outside the ordinary channels of diplomacy. Concrete forms include policy decisions documentably tracking foreign-government preferences in ways the public record does not explain, the cultivation of US officials as "assets" or "unwitting assets" by foreign services, and the routing of foreign-government interests through domestic intermediaries who do not register as foreign agents. The publication tracks documented relationships, not speculation about them.