Is John Kerry in violation of the Logan Act for his talks with Iranian officials?

  Yesterday we learned (surprisingly enough from the Boston Globe, the Globe probably thought this was a noble thing to do) that former Secretary of State John Kerry has secretly been meeting with Iranian, German, French, and European Union leaders to come up with a plan to keep the Iran nuclear deal in place.

  Of course he has not been authorized to negotiate for the United States government so it appears he would be in violation of the Logan Act.

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.

  The article I linked to above goes on to say pretty much the same thing I would have written here so here is what it said:

John Kerry, the former secretary of state and former senator, holds no governmental office. He is unauthorized to speak on behalf of the United States. There is no question that he is trying to undermine current American foreign policy by trying to salvage the disgraceful nuclear deal with Iran that he in part negotiated.

  It should be remembered at this point, as the article reminds us, that Michael Flynn was accused by the left of violating the Logan Act for speaking with Russian officials as Donald Trump transitioned into office. But the left is silent now…

  As I wrote before, there is nothing unusual about transition team members talking with the heads of foreign nations but there is something very unusual about a former Secretary of State working behind the scenes to undermine the current President and his foreign policy.

  It should also be remembered, which I forgot to mention in my first post on this issue, that John Kerry might have a vested interest in keeping the Iran nuclear deal in place because his son-in-law is Iranian and the best man at his daughter’s wedding was Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium