The Trump administration has weakened tools the US government uses to combat foreign-influence campaigns, even as covert attempts by Saudi Arabia and other “malign actors” to influence American policy are growing in “scope, sophistication, and reach”, according to a new Senate report.
The report, which was written by Democratic staff on the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations and is expected to be released today, follows a Senate investigation into the controversial proposed takeover of the PGA Tour by the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
The deal, which has not been finalized, has received the explicit backing of Donald Trump, who attended an LIV tournament at his family’s Miami resort last week amid the stock market meltdown. It was the fourth tournament LIV has held at the US president’s resort. The deal, critics argue, would in effect hand control of US golf to Saudi Arabia.
The Senate report paints a dire picture of the subcommittee staff’s attempts to obtain information about the Saudi state-funded Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund that owns LIV and whose public US holdings have increased from $2.3bn in March 2019 to $26.7bn in December 2024. That figure, the report notes, may “dramatically underrepresent” the PIF’s actual US footprint because it does not include private transactions.
“The Saudi Arabian government worked to thwart the subcommittee’s inquiry at every turn,” the report found, pointing to the repeated refusal of the PIF to allow its governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, to appear before a hearing or interview.
The alleged stonewalling has prompted the senator Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, to ask the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to reconsider moves to drastically limit the consideration of criminal charges for people who violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara), a US disclosure law that the senator has argued has too many loopholes to effectively monitor foreign influence. Bondi has also dissolved the FBI foreign influence taskforce.
“I am deeply concerned that your recent decisions suggest a conscious effort to turn a blind eye to – if not welcome – foreign influence,” Blumenthal wrote in his letter, which was obtained by the Guardian.
The disclosure of informational material that is required under Fara – such as lobbyist talking points – is down more than 30% in the first quarter of 2025, compared with this time last year, and down 40% compared with 2022, Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal is also introducing a new bill, the Sovereign Wealth Fund Transparency act, to “fix” loopholes in Fara and provide the DoJ with additional civil authority to enforce it.
“The Subcommittee’s inquiry has revealed the lengths foreign actors will go in order to avoid basic disclosure and transparency to the American people,” Blumenthal said. “I urge you to reconsider your decision to curtail the enforcement of foreign influence laws given the increasingly sophisticated influence threats the United States faces.”
Four of the PIF’s US-based consultants – Boston Consulting Group (BCG), M Klein & Company, McKinsey & Company and Teneo Strategy LLC – were directed by the Saudi government to refuse to comply with subpoenas that would have shed light on the PIF’s commercial investments in the US.
The Saudi government alleged in a Saudi court that cooperating with the Senate’s investigation would “cause harm to the interests of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia”. BCG told the Senate it believed it risked “criminal and financial penalties” if it complied with the US subpoena, a concern that was echoed by McKinsey and M Klein. Ultimately, the US consultants failed to meaningfully respond to the subpoenas.
The consultants did not respond to requests for comment by the Guardian. The PIF did not respond to a request for comment.
Democrats on the Senate subcommittee said the PIF’s “unprecedented decision” to sue its own consultants demonstrated “a willingness to go to great lengths to avoid scrutiny”.
While the Democrats’ report focused on the PIF, the report also noted efforts by other countries, including China, to exert influence through investment. But US laws, particularly a disclosure law that was meant to identify efforts to exert foreign influence, do not go far enough, the report found.
Even though the Department of Justice noted in January that the activities of sovereign wealth funds like the PIF meant regulations around foreign influence should be tightened, the report said it was doubtful that the Trump administration would enact any meaningful reform.
It noted that four officials serving in Trump’s current term – Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel, EPA chief Lee Zeldin and Middle East special envoy Steven Witkoff – are “known to have previously taken significant money from Qatar”. The officials’ ties to Qatar were reported by the Intercept.
