John Kerry was running a shadow government in order to save the ridiculously bad Iran deal and met with several foreign leaders which is a direct violation of the Logan Act. But Rep Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, isn’t satisfied with that and has called for the Feds to arrest Kerry on charges of treason.
According to US law, no private citizen may meet with a foreign power to negotiate a deal. Since Kerry was working directly against US policy and trying to sabotage the elected government the charge of treason would apply.
Raw Story reported:
The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is calling for former Secretary of State John Kerry to be the very first person ever arrested under a constitutionally dubious 1799 law.
Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) made his demand to imprison the former Massachusetts Democrat under the Logan Act, which could theoretically result in three year in federal prison.
The allegations followed a new Boston Globe report on former Secretary of State Kerry working to save the Iran nuclear deal.
OMG! Logan Act violations!! Send in the G Men… https://t.co/FA1dydJGQb
— Devin Nunes (@DevinNunes) May 4, 2018
“LOL, such hypocrisy…the left did not consider the Logan Act a “dubious” law when they were going after @GenFlynn
and the Trump transition team in 2016- and yes @DevinNunes is correct: ‘Send in the G Men’ – calls for John Kerry to be arrested by the FBI”
https://twitter.com/T_S_P_O_O_K_Y/status/992763291129827333?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Here is the text of the Logan Act:
§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.
- 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.
- This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
1 Stat. 613, January 30, 1799, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953 (2004).
Who has the authority?
Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution includes the ‘Treaty Clause,’ which empowers the President of the United States to propose and chiefly negotiate agreements, which must be confirmed by the Senate, between the United States and other countries, which become treaties between the United States and other countries after the advice and consent of a supermajority of the United States Senate.
[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur…
In United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304 (1936), Justice Sutherland, writing for the Court, observed,
“[T]he President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude; and Congress itself is powerless to invade it. As Marshall said in his great argument of March 7, 1800, in the House of Representatives, ‘The President is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations.’
John Kerry is not the president and should be arrested without delay.