Trump: John Kerry May Have Broken Law After Advising Iran
Former Secretary of State called out by the president for unauthorised negotiations
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President Donald Trump tweeted that former Secretary of State John Kerry could have violated the Logan Act by advising Iran prior to the deal being withdrawn.
“Iran is being given VERY BAD advice by John Kerry and people who helped him lead the U.S. into the very bad Iran Nuclear Deal. Big violation of Logan Act?” Trump wrote.
As Trump prepared to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, Kerry attempted to salvage the agreement by engaging in a dubious diplomacy campaign, according to The Boston Globe.
Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and top European Union official Federica Mogherini, in an effort to save the Iran deal, according to an anonymous source.
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Last September, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, called on the Justice Department to investigate Kerry's secret meetings with Iranian officials to determine whether he violated federal laws.
Top Trump Administration officials have already blasted Kerry for meeting with Iran's foreign minister.
Rubio said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday, that Americans “deserve to know that U.S. laws are enforced regardless of any individual’s past position.”
Kerry may well have violated the Logan Act, a 1799 law, which criminalizes unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments.
According to The Epoch Times: Mainstream media and enemies of the Trump administration accused then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn of violating the Logan Act, alleging he was not authorized to speak with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before the inauguration.
Flynn was never charged with violating the act. He still faces sentencing after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC will more than make up the Oil Flow difference in our now Full Sanctions on Iranian Oil. Iran is being given VERY BAD advice by @JohnKerry and people who helped him lead the U.S. into the very bad Iran Nuclear Deal. Big violation of Logan Act?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2019
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Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch sued the Department of State on April 15 for records of communications between Kerry and State Department officials and meetings between Kerry and Iranian officials about the Iran deal.
“John Kerry wasn’t elected president, so he should avoid colluding with Iran and other foreign government to undermine U.S. foreign policy,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
“Our lawsuit is meant to discover not only what Kerry was up to but also to unearth who inside the Deep State Trump ‘resistance’ was coordinating with Kerry’s clandestine efforts to undermine the President Trump’s Iran policy.”
Trump brought up Kerry’s possible violation after the White House declared that it would not extend waivers on Iran oil sanctions to the biggest buyers of Iranian oil, including India, China, and Japan.
Trump’s purpose is to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero in an attempt to force the regime to abandon its nuclear and missile programs, stop funding radical Islamic terrorism, and end human rights abuses, among other issues.
News of the impending end to the waivers triggered a spike in oil prices. The White House said it is working with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to increase production to make up for the supply lost from Iran.
“Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC will more than make up the Oil Flow difference in our now Full Sanctions on Iranian Oil,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
In September 2018, the United States outpaced Russia and Iran to become the world’s largest crude oil producer for the first time in nearly two decades.
Kerry told Congress in 1971 that he met with Vietnamese communists to discuss how to stop the Vietnam War.
Kerry would not become an elected official until more than a decade after that meeting.
