The 1799 Logan Act, which says starkly:
“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.”
Has intercourse with another government?? Good thing Clinton never saw that. I think this letter was a dumb move and a big waste of time.
“without authority of the United States”. Senators have authority of the United States.
Besides they did nothing more than to remind Iran of the way our treaty process works. The Senate has to ratify a treaty negotiated by the Executive before the treaty becomes valid.
the Logan Act deals with an ordinary citizen, not an elected official. keep that in mind. Kerry wants to discourage people. But remember kerry was involved with the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam war as a soldier. hey ceremoniously throw his dog tags over the fence(weren’t his dog tags though) Kerry is an ass and if this was so than kerry could be arrested too. What about Jane Fonda (Vietnam), Dennis Rodman (N. Korea). The Logan Act should have applied o them!
John Kerry himself violated that twice. With the North Vietnamese and with the Sandinistas.
I think since they are all elected Senators of the United States, they have the requisite authority.
Actually, when you read the words, it seems to apply most convincingly to 0bama—who keeps acting to "defeat the measures of the United States" at every turn by conspiring against American interests with foreign governments—such as Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Russia . . .