Former Secretary of State John Kerry has been secretly meeting with Iranian and European leaders in an attempt to save the Iran nuclear deal, undermining the Trump Administration’s efforts and possibly violating the Logan Act, Fox News reported on Monday.
The President is expected to make his final decision regarding the deal on Tuesday at 2 p.m. EST, he tweeted on Monday.
I will be announcing my decision on the Iran Deal tomorrow from the White House at 2:00pm.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018
A former State Department senior advisor to President Trump and former President George W. Bush, Christian Whiton, confirmed on Fox & Friends that Kerry has met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and Whiton also called for Kerry to be prosecuted.
“Leave it to John Kerry to take it to a whole new level. He met with Iran’s foreign minister,” Whiton said. “[He] also met with the Germans and the French in an effort to undermine the President’s foreign policy.”
“I think he should be prosecuted under the Logan Act,” Whiton added.”If it’s going to be used against Republicans, and it was certainly used against Mike Flynn to create … the whole ‘entrapment’ of Flynn, […] then it is pretty plain that John Kerry is in violation of the act.”
John Kerry is colluding with our chief adversary in the Middle East and ought to be prosecuted. https://t.co/XF6ZLU3n5J
— Christian Whiton (@ChristianWhiton) May 6, 2018
The Boston Globe also confirmed that Kerry held meetings with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The meetings were under Kerry’s own accord and unbeknownst to the Trump Administration.
Whiton is now calling for Kerry to be prosecuted under the Logan Act, which criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments.
Part of the Logan Act states that “[any] citizen … who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence … with any foreign government … with intent to influence the measures … in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned.”
The White House responded to the reports about Kerry’s meetings, and President Trump tweeted Monday morning: “The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!”
The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018
Rudy Giuliani, now one of the lead members of Trump’s legal team, also criticized Kerry’s actions and said that people seem to be ignoring his violation of the Logan Act.
During an interview on ABC, Giuliani stated: “This is another tangent like chasing the [Michael] Flynn tangent when it turns out that John Kerry is now violating the Logan Act and nobody seems to care. You haven’t asked me about it,” according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The Trump Administration has a May 12 deadline to determine whether to keep the Iran nuclear deal in place or withdraw from it completely.
Following allegations of Kerry’s involvement in Iran, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mac Thornberry said that Trump’s best move may now be to push back the deadline and re-evaluate the situation.
“You need to have a clear idea about the next steps,” Thornberry said. “Maybe the best thing is for the President to delay a bit more his deadline for this month and put the French and British up to the test about whether it is possible to get this agreement.”
