Trump says John Kerry should be charged under Logan Act for contacts with Iranians

President Donald Trump said that former Secretary of State John Kerry should be charged under the Logan Act, an 18th century law, for his conversations with Iranians, blaming him for messing up his communication with Tehran.

Speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump apparently blamed Kerry for the administration’s lack of communication with Iran, and suggested the former diplomat be prosecuted for his own contacts with the Islamic Republic.

“What I’d like to see with Iran, I’d like to see them call me,” Trump said. “John Kerry speaks to them a lot, and John Kerry tells them not to call. That’s a violation of the Logan Act, and frankly he should be prosecuted on that.”

As a private citizen, Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif last year to discuss outstanding issues related to the 2015 nuclear pact which both helped to negotiate. The meeting outraged President Trump.

“The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal,” the president tweeted. “He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!”

Passed in 1799 under the John Adams administration, the Logan Act criminalizes unauthorized negotiations with foreign powers with which the United States has a dispute. In only two cases has anyone ever been charged under the Act, the last time in 1853, and neither resulted in a conviction.

During the special counsel probe into Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow, investigators threatened Trump campaign staffers George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn with violations of the Logan Act for their interactions with foreigners, but neither were ever charged under the law.

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