Like Middle knows what the Logan Act is. My low I.Q. base has been yapping about that for years
Just babbling what entertainer Maddow says doesn't mean a thing LOL
from that bastion of conserative support...the Wall Street journal...
Repeal the Logan Act: It’s never yielded a conviction but invites abuse by prosecutors, cops and presidents.
Congress passed the Logan Act in 1799, and it’s long past time to repeal it. Only two people have been prosecuted under it, in 1802 and 1852, and both were acquitted. But the law invites political abuse, as we’ve seen recently in the case of Mike Flynn.
The act makes it a crime for citizens to engage in unauthorized “correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government . . . in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.” Since the U.S. has disputes with every other country, its reach stops just short of lunar orbit.
Since the law is hardly ever enforced, why not leave it alone? Because while the law is still on the books, it can always be trotted out and used selectively, even maliciously. That’s exactly what happened to Mr. Flynn when James Comey’s Federal Bureau of Investigation wanted to destroy him and undermine the president.
The law used to investigate Mr. Flynn was available to every administration since John Adams’s—including President Trump’s. What about John Kerry, who met last year with Iranian officials, urging them to stick with the nuclear deal and wait out the Trump administration? What about U.S. business leaders meeting with their Chinese counterparts about current sanctions? What about the American Jews and evangelical Christians who advised Israeli politicians about West Bank settlements during the Obama years, directly opposing the president’s policies? What about candidate Trump’s urging Britain to exit the European Union while President Obama was urging it to remain? Each could be investigated under the Logan Act.
The list goes on, and that’s the problem. The president’s appointees at Justice or the FBI could investigate any of them. That open-ended opportunity means the law is poised for selective use, political investigations and prosecutorial abuse. The president sworn in next Jan. 20, Republican or Democrat, will have it available. He shouldn’t.
After the abuse against Mr. Flynn, it’s time to wipe the Logan Act from the books.