Watchdog accuses Trump of breaking the law with reported Netanyahu call

[RAY BOGAN]

The watchdog group American Muckrakers is accusing Donald Trump of violating the Logan Act for allegedly holding a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Axios reported that Trump and Netanyahu spoke on the phone Wednesday of last week and discussed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal currently being negotiated. 

Both Netanyahu and Trump denied the call took place. Trump said he spoke with Netanyahu about the war with Gaza in person at Mar-a-Lago on July 26 where he encouraged him to end it as quickly as possible. 

In a letter addressed to New York Judge Juan Merchan, American Muckrakers claimed that conversation may have been a violation of the Logan Act by negotiating and/or interfering with Prime Minister Netanyahu. 

Merchan is the judge overseeing Trump’s New York hush money case and American Muckrakers hoped he’d take the information into consideration for his sentencing. 

The Logan Act was passed in 1799 and makes it illegal for unauthorized Americans to engage with foreign governments regarding disputes with the United States. Only two people have ever been charged in the country’s history so it’s highly unlikely Trump would face any consequences, even if the call went exactly the way American Muckrakers alleged. 

Trump himself accused former Secretary of State John Kerry of violating the Logan Act when the former president  pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. 

On May 7, 2018 Trump tweeted, “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 Boston Globe reported that Kerry engaged in “unusual shadow diplomacy”, with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in an attempt to salvage the nuclear deal he helped negotiate as secretary of state under the Obama administration.

Kerry said he did not meet with any Iranians after Trump formally pulled out of the deal and that he had a right to speak against the move as an American  citizen.  

Trump’s then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time – “This is a former secretary of state engaged with the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, and according to him, he was talking to them, he was telling them to wait out this administration.” 

Kerry was never charged with violating any law.