The Patriot Post® · Kerry, Flynn and the Logan Act

Former Secretary of State John Kerry — emphasis on former — may have recently interfered with Middle East peace talks. Fox News reports, “Kerry reportedly told [Hussein] Agha to share a message with [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas — urging him to ‘hold on and be strong’ during talks with the Trump administration and ‘play for time … [and] not yield to President Trump’s demands.’” Fox also noted, “Kerry [reportedly] used derogatory terms when referring to Trump, and offered to help the Palestinians create an alternative peace initiative. He reportedly asked Abbas not to attack the U.S. or the Trump administration, but rather focus attacks on the president himself.”

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, didn’t believe it. “Kerry knows as a former secretary of state, a former U.S. senator, that kind of advice would be stunningly unpatriotic, and I don’t think John Kerry would do something like that. I hope he wouldn’t. I would be very, very surprised if a former secretary of state, a former U.S. senator would have said anything that was that overtly anti-American.” A spokesman for Kerry also denied the report, saying, “The original story wasn’t accurate.”

Perhaps Kerry has changed his stripes, but he didn’t have any problem with undermining official U.S. policy in his traitorous 1971 “negotiations” with the North Vietnamese as a young naval officer. So yes, saying such things to Agha would be exactly the kind of thing Kerry would do.

If he did say these things, it arguably would violate the Logan Act, the 1802 law that prevents U.S. citizens from undermining foreign policy abroad. That same act is central to the prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, whom President Donald Trump fired just three weeks into the job last year. Leftists accuse Flynn of illegally colluding with Russia before the Trump administration took office.

Back in December, Rich Lowry put such objections to rest: “In these conversations, Flynn didn’t ‘collude’ with the Russians about hacked emails. He informed them of Donald Trump’s posture on a policy question. Flynn went beyond the anodyne foreign contacts typical of a transition. This may be inappropriate, but it isn’t a scandal or — as the more outlandish anti-Trumpists argue — a violation of federal law." 

We, of course, are still waiting for the prosecution of Kerry for traitorously providing "aid and comfort” to the enemy in 1971. We know nothing will ever come of it for the longtime senator, presidential candidate and secretary of state, but we can dream.