Dick Morris: John Kerry Told Palestinians Trump Would Be out in a Year, Violating the Logan Act
Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Palestinian leaders to “hold on and be strong,” resisting President Donald Trump’s policies.
The former Secretary of State told the Palestinian leaders that within a year, there was a good chance that Trump would be out of office.
In the meantime, Kerry said Abbas should “stay strong in his spirit and play for time.”
He said Abbas must “not break” and make clear that he will “not yield to President Trump’s demands.”
Kerry met, in London, with Hussein Agha, a close associate of Palestinian President Mahmout Abbas and told him to ignore President Trump’s demands for a Mideast peace.
In a clear violation of the Logan Act that prohibits private citizens from conducting foreign policy, Kerry told Agha to pass onto Abbas the message to stand firm.
Kerry’s conversations were clear violations of the Logan Act and he should be prosecuted.
The Act was passed in 1802 and was passed to prevent US citizens from undercutting the government’s foreign policy.
The Act is the underpinning of the case against former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.
Gen. Flynn was forced to resign because, three weeks before he took office and while therefore still a private citizen, he had called the Russian ambassador to urge him not to respond to President Barack Obama’s sanctions on Russia, implying that when he took office, Trump might ease the sanctions.
While Kerry was out of office with no plans to return and was truly a private citizen, Flynn was clearly speaking as the National Security Advisor-designate biding his time before he became an official spokesman and formulator of U.S. foreign policy.
Telling a foreign leader to “wait out” the policy of a sitting U.S. president not only violates the letter of the Logan Act, but its spirit as well.
If we allow all former government officials to use their prestige to undermine administration policy and tell foreign leaders to ignore it or act counter to it, we will be working at cross purposes with ourselves.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions should launch an investigation of former Secretary Kerry’s comments so incidents like this don’t take place in the future.
Dick Morris is a former adviser to President Bill Clinton as well as a political author, pollster and consultant. His most recent book, “Rogue Spooks,” was written with his wife, Eileen McGann.
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