Has John Kerry violated the Logan Act? Trump renews attack on ex secretary of state post Javad Zarif tape leaks
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted John Kerry, the former secretary of state under the Obama administration, since it emerged that he had allegedly shared sensitive information on Israeli military action with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Trump alleged that Kerry's actions were in violation of the Logan Act of 1799, a claim he first made in 2019.
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The 45th President recently lambasted Kerry, who is currently serving as the 1st United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, during an appearance on the Dan Bongino podcast last week. "If you look at what's happening. We got the word out on so many things. Including, I just saw today, on John Kerry and what he did with Iran. I was pushing that very very hard... I think we would have had a deal with Iran done except he was telling Iran not to do it, that's my opinion," Trump said, referring to his administration's efforts to sign a better deal with the Iranian regime than the one negotiated under his predecessor.
Trump's comments came while responding to a question about the alleged abuse of power by some federal agencies, which have been accused of conducting illicit surveillance on the former president while he was still in office. Trump said he had managed to expose the same and launched a tirade on Kerry, accusing the diplomat of sabotaging his administration's efforts in Tehran.
"Now that's coming out it's a terrible thing. So you know you talk about the Logan Act, look what they did with General Michael Flynn," Trump said. "What they [the federal government] did with John Kerry, and the way he was protected was incredible. Actually incredible."
In a leaked recording obtained by the New York Times and Iran International, Zarif was heard saying that Kerry told him about 200 covert Israeli attacks on Iranian interests in Syria during the Trump administration. The foreign minister claimed that he was receiving intel from Kerry after the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country’s supreme leader had kept him in the dark about their negotiations and military operations.
“It was former US Foreign Secretary John Kerry who told me Israel had launched more than 200 attacks on Iranian forces in Syria,” Zarif said in the tapes. His comments were reportedly part of a March interview that wasn't supposed to be published until August, when President Hassan Rouhani is due to leave office.
That said, it is unclear whether Kerry tipped Zarif off while he was still secretary of state, or had left office. Kerry admitted in 2018 that he and Obama's Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz had met with Zarif while Trump was still in the White House. However, the newly-anointed climate czar has denied discussing Israeli targets with the Iranian foreign minister.
“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened – either when I was Secretary of State or since,” he wrote on Twitter last week.
I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened - either when I was Secretary of State or since. https://t.co/BTOdFE1khW
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) April 26, 2021
It's worth noting that Kerry and Moniz played instrumental roles in negotiating the controversial nuclear deal between Iran and global powers in 2015. According to Kerry, he met with Zarif and other Iranian officials only to salvage the nuclear agreement.
Trump later blasted Kerry for his "shadow diplomacy" and accused the Obama era officials of getting the US into "this mess." “The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!" Trump tweeted after reports surfaced about Kerry’s meetings with the Iranians.
Just days later, Trump pulled the US out of the pact - a move that was criticized by the former Secretary of State.
“I think every American would want every voice possible urging Iran to remain in compliance with the nuclear agreement that prevented a war,” Kerry said in a statement at the time. The statement added: “Secretary Kerry stays in touch with his former counterparts around the world just like every previous Secretary of State. Like America’s closest allies, he believes it is important that the nuclear agreement, which took the world years to negotiate, remain effective as countries focus on stability in the region.”
Trump first accused Kerry of violating the Logan Act in May 2019, saying he was siding with Iran over US interests and should be prosecuted for it.
“You know 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," Trump told reporters at the time. "But my people don’t want to do anything; only the Democrats do that kind of stuff. If it were the opposite way, they’d prosecute him under the Logan Act.”
The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. The Act is aimed at preventing unofficial negotiations that could potentially undermine the government's position.
Legal analyst Jonathan Turley wrote in The Hill about how the Logan Act became the "last refuge" for Justice Department officials scrambling to find a crime to use against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn after he discussed foreign affairs with world leaders as a member of Trump's transition team.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked during a September 2018 press conference whether he thought Kerry's meetings in Iran constituted a violation of the Logan Act.
“I’ll leave the legal determinations to others," he said at the time. "But what Secretary Kerry has done is unseemly and unprecedented. This is a former secretary of state engaged with the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, and according to him — right? You don’t have to take my word for it. He — these are his answers. He was talking to them. He was telling them to wait out this administration."
“You can’t find precedent for this in U.S. history, and the secretary ought not — Secretary Kerry ought not to engage in that kind of behavior," Pompeo continued. "It’s inconsistent with what foreign policy of the United States is, as directed by this President, and it is beyond inappropriate for him to be engaged in this."
Writing for the Jewish Star, journalist Jeff Dunetz noted that Kerry, as an American citizen, was "free to state his opinion about American policy at any time, to any person, no matter how negative his judgment may be. However, when he meets with an ambassador to an enemy state to advise them on circumventing American foreign policy, it becomes a violation of the law." Dunetz said it seemed to him "as a layman" that the former Secretary of State "did violate Logan Act" due to aforementioned actions.
But even if Kerry is charged with violating the Act, it is highly unlikely he would be convicted in a court of law. Only two people have ever been indicted on charges of violating the Logan Act since it was signed into law by President John Adams over 220 years ago, namely Francis Flournoy in 1803, and Jonas P Levy in 1852. Neither one was convicted on the charges.