# Plain Language Summary: Protecting Our Courts from Foreign Manipulation Act of 2025

This bill requires anyone involved in a lawsuit to disclose if foreign governments, foreign investment funds, or foreign individuals are secretly funding the case from behind the scenes. Right now, lawsuits can be funded by third parties—people or organizations who aren't actually suing but have a financial stake in winning—and there's often no requirement to reveal if that money comes from abroad. This bill changes that by forcing lawyers and parties to tell the court, other parties, and the U.S. Attorney General who's really paying for the case if any foreign money is involved.

The bill completely bans foreign governments and foreign sovereign wealth funds (investment funds controlled by foreign governments) from secretly funding American lawsuits at all. If a foreign government or its investment fund tries to finance a case, any agreement they make is automatically void and unenforceable. However, the bill still allows regular foreign individuals or companies to fund cases—they just have to be transparent about it. The disclosure must happen within 30 days of signing a funding agreement or when the lawsuit is filed, whichever comes later, and must include the funder's name, address, and country of origin.

This affects anyone involved in federal court cases—plaintiffs, defendants, and their lawyers. If you're in a lawsuit and someone is funding it from abroad, you'll need to disclose that. The bill also requires the Attorney General to report annually to Congress about foreign funding in American courts, including how much money is involved and which countries it's coming from. Lawyers who fail to disclose this information face the same penalties as any other discovery violation in court, which can include fines or sanctions.