Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Stop Transnational Repression Act”.
Stop Transnational Repression Act
A BILL
To criminalize transnational repression, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Transnational repression is not currently codified or defined in United States law.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines transnational repression as foreign government breach of national borders through physical and digital means to intimidate, silence, coerce, harass, or harm members of diaspora and exile communities in violation of United States law. Transnational repression is often used to silence individuals who are perceived to oppose or are critical of a government, including journalists, writers and artists, human rights defenders, religious or ethnic minority groups, and political opponents. Methods of transnational repression may include physical and digital stalking, harassment, computer hacking, phone tapping, INTERPOL abuse, criminal threats, assaults, attempted kidnappings, coerced repatriation, and detaining family members in the home country.
Transnational repression is not limited to physical acts of intimidation and harassment. According to Citizen Lab, “digital transnational repression” tools are used to facilitate government reach beyond borders to gain access to social media and email accounts, including through phishing attacks, zero-click spyware hacks, social media page takedowns, SIM card hacks, and fake invitations to conferences. For human rights activists and dissidents, this has a serious impact on their advocacy work and sense of security, even if they have relocated to escape physical intimidation.
On February 23, 2022, the National Security Division of the Department of Justice launched a “Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats” in order to support a comprehensive, “whole-of-government” approach to addressing threats the United States faces from hostile nations, including transnational repression.
Throughout 2022, the Department of Justice charged a number of individuals with stalking, harassing, and illicitly acting as agents of foreign governments, who allegedly perpetrated transnational repression to silence United States residents who were critics of the People’s Republic of China.
In January 2023, the Department of Justice announced charges and arrests in a case involving an assassination plot directed from Iran against a critic of the regime. The Department stated, “These charges are just the latest example of individuals in Iran directing deadly violence on U.S. soil.”.
Transnational repression is a growing problem. The Department of Justice has reported an “alarming rise in plots emanating from Iran, China, Russia, and elsewhere, targeting people in the United States”. As of April 2023, Freedom House has documented 854 direct, physical cases of transnational repression that took place globally between 2014 and 2022.
Freedom House recorded a total of 79 new incidents of transnational repression globally committed by 20 governments in 2022. Two governments, Bangladesh and Djibouti, were added to the list of perpetrators, bringing the total number of states engaged in transnational repression around the world to 38. The number of countries where acts of transnational repression took place rose from 84 to 91 in 2022, including the United States, according to Freedom House.
Sec. 3 Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that hostile nations and authoritarian regimes have increasingly and aggressively targeted individuals in the United States and persons outside the United States. Agents of these governments have acted outside diplomatic channels to threaten, intimidate, harass, surveil, stalk, silence, and even plot to physically harm or kidnap persons within U.S. borders. Although transnational repression often involves actions that are already prohibited by U.S. law, their foreign government backing render these activities more dangerous than the underlying acts of intimidation or harassment alone. Therefore, it is necessary to formally define and criminalize transnational repression in Federal law, and to more actively track and report on instances of transnational repression in the United States and affecting United States persons. It is also necessary to continue to work with foreign partners to address this issue in a coordinated manner, including in multilateral settings.
Sec. 4 Criminalizing transnational repression
Offense— Chapter 45 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“971. Transnational repression
“(a) In general—Whoever knowingly commits an act of transnational repression shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both, and if death or serious bodily injury results from the act, or if such act include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, or aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both.
“(b) Attempt or conspiracy—Whoever attempts or conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the attempt or conspiracy.
“(c) Sentencing enhancement—Whoever knowingly commits, attempts, or conspires to commit an offense under any other section of this title at the direction of or under the control of a foreign government or official or on behalf of their proxy while engaged in and in furtherance of transnational repression shall, in addition to the punishment authorized for such offense, be subject to a sentencing enhancement of up to ten years in prison.
“(d) Extraterritorial Jurisdiction—There is extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction over an offense under this section.
“(e) Definitions—In this section:
“(1) Agent of a foreign government—The term “agent of a foreign government” means an individual who operates subject to the direction or control of a foreign government or official.
“(2) Extrajudicial killing—The term “extrajudicial killing” means an act with the intention to or in the knowledge that such act will end the life of another person, when that act is not incident to lawful sanction, public necessity, self-defense or the defense of others, or the law of armed conflict.
“(3) Proxy—The term “proxy” means an individual acting on behalf of an agent of a foreign government.
“(4) Transnational repression—The term “transnational repression” means any activity by a foreign government, or an agent of a foreign government or a proxy thereof, that satisfies each of the following:
“(A) The activity involves—
“(i) any effort intended to coerce, harass, or digitally or physically threaten, including by force or reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury or imprisonment of a person or an immediate family member of a person, a person to take an action in the interest of a foreign government;
“(ii) any effort intended to harass or coerce, including by force or fear, a person to forebear from exercising their First Amendment rights or any other right guaranteed to the person by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to retaliate against a person for having exercised such a right;
“(iii) an extrajudicial killing; or
“(iv) any act intended to further the efforts specified in clause (i), (ii), or (iii).
“(B) The activity is engaged in for or in the interests of a foreign government.
“(C) The activity—
“(i) occurs, in whole or in part, in the United States; or
“(ii) is committed against—
“(I) a United States person; or
“(II) a person in the United States.
“(5) United States person—The term “United States person” has the meaning given such term in section 1637(d)(10) of the Carl Levin and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (50 U.S.C. 1708(d)(10)).
“(6) Dangerous weapon—The term “dangerous weapon” has the meaning given the term in section 930(g)(2).”
Clerical amendment— The table of sections for chapter 45 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
Predicate offenses— Part I of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
in section 1956(c)(7)(D), by inserting “section 971 (relating to transnational repression),” before “section 1005 (relating to fraudulent bank entries),”;
in section 1961(1), by inserting “section 971 (relating to transnational repression),” before “section 1028 (relating to fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents),”; and
in section 2516(1)—
in paragraph (t), by striking “or”;
in paragraph (u), by striking the period and inserting “; or”; and
by adding at the end the following:
“(v) any violation of section 951 of title 18 (relating to agents of foreign governments); any violation of section 971 of title 18 (transnational repression); and any felony violation of section 8 of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (22 U.S.C. 618) (relating to registration of agents of foreign principals).”
Sec. 5 Centralization of oversight of transnational repression prosecutions and investigations
National Security Division— The Attorney General shall centralize oversight of transnational repression prosecutions in the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, or any successor organization.
Investigations— The Attorney General, acting through the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, shall centralize oversight of transnational repression investigations in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or any successor organization.
Sec. 6 Reporting on transnational repression
Reports— Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division of the Department of Justice and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence and the head of any other department or agency the Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation determines appropriate, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a joint report on incidents of transnational repression against or otherwise impacting a United States person. Each report shall contain the following:
An overview of transnational repression in the United States or against United States persons outside of the United States, including the governments that perpetrate transnational repression and the tactics that they use.
A description of any activities that the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice or the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation determines to be substantially similar to transnational repression that do not fall within the definition of transnational repression.
Subject to appropriate protections for sensitive information regarding law enforcement investigations and operations, a description of efforts during the previous calendar year to disrupt transnational repression through investigation and criminal prosecution.
A description of efforts during the previous calendar year by any agency of the United States Government to disrupt transnational repression through means other than investigation and criminal prosecution, including through diplomatic means.
Form— Each report submitted under subsection (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
Sec. 7 Definitions
In this Act:
Appropriate congressional committees— The term “appropriate congressional committees” means—
the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives; and
the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.
Transnational repression— The term “transnational repression” has the meaning given the term in section 971 of title 18, United States Code, as added by section 4.
Sec. 8 The U.S. Sentencing Commission
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the U.S. Sentencing Commission shall promulgate or amend such sentencing guideline as may be necessary to provide appropriate guideline penalties for the offense conduct and penalty provisions established in this Act, and amended by this Act, including enhanced penalties for aggravated forms of any offense established in this Act.