Trump and Netanyahu met in July at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
— IT’S TIME FOR JUSTICE (@LiddleSavages) September 2, 2024
Donald Trump told Netanyahu not to make no deals (because it would help President Biden) until he was elected in November.
Now there’s 6 hostages dead. There’s a massive protest in Israel to make a ceasefire deal. pic.twitter.com/7js57JGfz6
Dots, connected
The Logan Act, on the books since 1799:
“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.”
“…some authorities have suggested that the Act is no longer operative under the doctrine of “desuetude” (prolonged non-use), or at least that prosecution would be extremely unlikely as a practical matter. Alternatively, one might conclude that certain categories of practices, such as communications by members of Congress, have been tacitly approved by practice because they have occurred fairly commonly and prominently without being prosecuted. At minimum, one can say that there is a long practice of ignoring potential Logan Act violations, and reversal of that practice in a politically charged case would be controversial.” https://fedsoc.org/commentary/fedsoc-blog/the-logan-act-an-introduction
This appears to be a more blatant violation of the act than many others that have occurred, as it appears that Trump has asked a head of state explicitly to make no deals with the US government, which is directly contrary to US policy and the stated intent of the President and SecState. Discussions with foreign government representatives are pretty common among ex-presidents, but, while these conversations may be interpreted as a technical violation of the Logan Act, they seldom cross the line of requesting the foreign government to act contrary to the stated intentions of the US government.
Of course, if Trump breaks the law it generally takes many years for the DOJ to decide whether to prosecute, and even longer for the case to get through the courts. He would be dead, or President, by then. Complicating matters considerably….