Climate Czar (and fmr. SecofState) John Kerry Violated the Logan Act

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Ya know... The 1799 Logan Act that they threatened that one Trump guy for violating and almost literally no one else before or since?


Thank Goodness the Iranian regime had the integrity to 'leak' these disturbing audio tapes, no doubt in a good faith attempt to get Biden to negotiate a new Nuclear Deal.
 
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prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
I'm confused: should I or shouldn't I care about Logan Act violations?
Your care on the matter of the Logan Act should exist in a quantum superposition of both caring and not caring until the accused's partisan alignment is known, at which point it should coalesce into a discrete position of either caring or not dependent upon such partisan alignment's capacity to fill the first-level caring orbital of the care element.

There are some crazies who bandy about the idea of drilling deeper-in and caring about the structural elements at work in the care element itself, with nutty theories about consistency, constitutionality of laws, and the enforcement or non thereof on universal basis as opposed to partisan, but those individuals can be reliably called kooks and fools for such ascription to the dangerous and silly 'bothsides' quantum political theory.

Then there's the real nutters who question the morality, absent Logan Act entirely, of ratting-out allies to hostile powers with record of assassination and terror-bombing in general (and towards said allies in particular).
 

ShieldWife

Marchioness
Let’s look at what the Logan Act actually says:
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

From reading this, I don’t like the Logan Act, it’s too vague and too broad. Private American citizens should be able to interaction with foreign governments even if those governments have issues with the USA.

What Kerry did might actually be way worse than what the Logan Act is describing though. Kerry wasn’t just some private citizen doing business with the Iranian government, he was a high ranking member of the Obama administration and he was telling the Iranians potentially secret information. Was Kerry authorized to tell the Iranians this stuff? How classified was this information? If this was classified information and Kerry was telling the Iranian government this without authorization, then screw the Logan Act and its $5000 fine, he could be charged with espionage.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
The Logan act is kinda redundent nowadays. When you have the rules and regulations about having a high clearance I know the guy has, you are automatically considered treason and a national security threat or charged with espionage.

As shield wife said, if it was classified information, depending on classification, it can only get worse for him.
 

S'task

Renegade Philosopher
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Staff Member
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Yeah, the Logan Act is bullshit of the highest degree and exists at this point only to serve as a political bludgeon as the general consensus of the Logan Act is if someone was ever actually charged and tried under it, the courts would simply strike it down as a blatant violation of the 1st Amendment.

Back when it was passed there WAS a reason for it and it didn't violate the 1st amendment. Remember, it was passed in 1799. The first trans-Atlantic cable to send morse code was not laid until the 1850s (and wasn't even a concept when the law was passed). The basic idea back then was that it was to discourage a person from pretending to be a US official overseas when there was no way to verify who they were and if they could legitimately represent the US government. In modern times with near instant international communication, that legitimate purpose of the Logan Act is no longer valid, as local governments can literally pick up a phone, call Washington DC and ASK "Hey, is Joe Shmoe you rep?"

That said, I have no doubts the information Kerry gave the Iranians was classified. And I also know that without a doubt the people he handed it to weren't authorized to have it. That said, the double standard when it comes to Democrats breaking classification laws dates back all the way to the Kennedy administration if not the FDR one, so nothing will be done about it. -.-
 

Battlegrinder

Someday we will win, no matter what it takes.
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Obozny
I'm not quite as convinced of the Logan acts orginal merits as @S'task is, given that the actual Logan the act was named for didn't go around pretending to be a US offical (nor were either of the two people that were threatened with prosecution), and the act is also a product of the Adams "signed the alien and sedition acts" administration, who cannot be trusted to have acted in good faith.

That said, he's correct in that the act is effectively worthless, as no one will ever actually be charged with violating it and it's only value is a cudgel for idiots to wave around to rile up other idiots.
 

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