Republican attorneys general demand DOJ investigate foreign funding tied to 150 climate groups in US
FIRST ON FOX: Nineteen Republican attorneys general on Friday asked the Department of Justice to investigate dozens of U.S.-based nonprofits for potential violations of federal foreign agent laws after receiving nearly $2 billion in foreign funding over the past decade.
The state attorneys general urged Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ’s national security division head, John Eisenberg, to open the probe after the nonprofits accepted the funding from five foreign-based climate foundations, according to a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital.
The funding may have been used to improperly influence U.S. energy policies without the nonprofits registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the attorneys general wrote.
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The attorneys general identified more than 150 U.S.-based organizations the DOJ should investigate, saying there was "substantial evidence" that many of them were violating FARA by "engaging in coordinated funding and advocacy efforts to influence U.S. energy policy and undermine American energy independence."
The five foreign groups named in the letter, the Oak Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, KR Foundation and Laudes Foundation, were found by the conservative watchdog Americans for Public Trust to have funneled the money to the smaller organizations over the past decade.
The letter was led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. Fox News Digital reached out to the five groups for comment.
The attorneys general alleged the foreign foundations used funding to "direct climate activism and influence energy policy in the United States, including by funding U.S. policy fights, litigation, research, protests, and lobbying to advance an extreme, foreign, activist agenda."
At least one of the foreign groups, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, "has documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party," the attorneys general said.
They noted a separate December 2025 request from more than two dozen state attorneys general seeking a FARA investigation into two U.S.-based groups connected to CIFF.
Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Under the FARA statute, entities must register if they act as an "agent" of a "foreign principal" and engage in certain political activities.
The attorneys general argued the foreign foundations qualified as foreign principals because they are incorporated in Switzerland, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
They also said the nonprofits’ activities did not appear to fall under any exemptions under the law, adding that the "burden of establishing the availability of an exemption from registration under the Act shall rest upon the person for whose benefit the exemption is claimed."