Globalists and establishment types, watch out. The establishment media-driven brouhaha over Trump’s national security advisor Lt. General Michael Flynn, who just resigned amid the controversy, has resurrected talk of an obscure U.S. law known as the Logan Act. Passed more than 200 years ago, the federal statute makes it a crime for Americans to seek to influence the policies of foreign governments without official permission from U.S. authorities. And Flynn aside, there are plenty of Americans in that category — potentially including top power-brokers ranging from Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to senior globalists and Bilderberg bigwigs including David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger.
Anti-Trump forces and the establishment media organs they control have alleged that Flynn’s phone call with the Russian government’s U.S. ambassador may have run afoul of the 1799 statute. At the time of the phone call, Flynn was a top official on Trump’s transition team. But the globalists, Democrats, and others touting the Logan Act should be very careful what they wish for. If the act were to actually be enforced, more than a few globalists and senior members of the ruling establishment might find themselves behind bars.
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In over 200 years, not a single person has actually been prosecuted under the Logan Act so far. But in their zeal to go after Trump and his officials for every real and imagined misstep, establishment media organs and propagandists have argued that Flynn violated the act. “Based on what has been publicly reported, it looks like Flynn may have violated this law,” wrote University of Georgia law professor Page Pate in a piece for CNN, widely ridiculed by conservatives and Trump supporters as “fake news.” Numerous establishment media organs carried similar claims.
The law in question reads: “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.”
Page, the law professor from Georgia, suggested that Flynn ought to be prosecuted under the law, and dismisses concerns by critics about using it. “There are literally hundreds of federal crimes in the federal code that are rarely, if ever, used,” he wrote, addressing the point by Flynn defenders that the statute has never been used to prosecute anyone. “While I personally think that many of these obscure federal ´crimes´ are outdated, misguided and patently unconstitutional, that doesn’t change the fact that they are still on the books.” And so, Flynn should be prosecuted, Page argues.
Details in the ongoing saga surrounding Trump’s former adviser are still hazy. But it appears that Lt. Gen. Flynn, who oversaw the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency during Obama’s term and argued against Obama’s criminal policy of arming terrorists before joining Trump as national security advisor, had a phone conversation in late December with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. What was discussed was not immediately clear.
Flynn was accused by leakers within the Trump administration — reportedly elements of the globalist “deep state” determined to sabotage Trump — of giving the ambassador the impression that Trump would lift Obama’s sanctions on the Kremlin upon being sworn in. What exactly was said on the call, which was apparently intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, will undoubtedly remain the subject of much controversy. But because Trump was not yet in office, anti-Trump voices claimed that it may have been a violation of the Logan Act.
With the media hyping the story as if it were the next Watergate, Flynn resigned this week. In addition to the alleged Logan Act concerns, it was also claimed that Flynn may have provided inaccurate information on the call in question to Vice President Mike Pence and other officials. The Trump administration, though, made clear that the resignation was due to a loss of trust between Trump and Flynn, and had nothing to do with the alleged “legal concerns” that the establishment media, Democrats, and anti-Trump agitators have been shrieking about.
Of course, as a senior member of Trump’s transition team, Flynn was hardly a “private person” seeking to influence another government’s policy. In fact, the White House spokesman specifically said that Trump’s legal counsel had investigated the matter and determined that there were no legal issues involved. “There was nothing that the general did that was a violation of any sort,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a Tuesday press briefing. “He was well within his duties to discuss issues of common concerns between the two countries.”
Still, Democrats in Congress refused to let go of the issue, perhaps hoping to keep Trump on defense as they try to undermine his campaign to “drain the swamp.” On Monday, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee called on Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to pursue an investigation of Flynn. Citing establishment media hysteria, the letter claims Flynn “secretly discussed with the Russian ambassador, in possible violation of the Logan Act, sanctions imposed by President Obama.”
But the Democrats and their establishment media allies should think very carefully about their strategy. Ironically, it seems that a much stronger case could be made that Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have both violated the Logan Act. A 2008 article by Pamela Meister published by Accuracy in Media laid out the case against both clearly.
In 2008, while Bush was in the White House, then-Senator Obama went to Iraq to try, “in private,” to persuade Iraqi officials to “delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence” until after the election. Of course, Obama was not authorized by Bush to try to influence the Iraqi government’s policies, suggesting a clear-cut violation of the Logan Act took place. The establishment media said nothing about the law.
Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engaged in similar activities that would seem to represent a much more obvious violation of the Logan Act than anything Flynn is accused of doing. In 2007, Pelosi went to Israel and Syria. While in Damascus, she reportedly told Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad that Israeli officials were ready for peace talks. Israeli officials were stunned, and the U.S. State Department blasted the entire visit, saying it did not want Pelosi meddling in Syria or anywhere else. Again, the establishment media was missing in action when it came to Pelosi’s apparent violation of the Logan Act.
Many of Pelosi’s colleagues could also be prosecuted under the Logan Act, according to experts. “If Flynn had discussions with Kislyak and, through that, the Russians, and he discussed a wide variety of topics, forget the Logan Act because half of Congress since the 1980s would be in prison if the Logan Act were enforced,” said Ed Turzanski, the John Templeton Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
The latest brouhaha over the Logan Act is rare, but the statute does occasionally make headlines in the United States. Most often, in recent years, at least, the law has surfaced in the alternative media in connection with the annual Bilderberg summit, a powerful network founded by Nazi SS member Prince Bernhard that brings together top globalists and lesser figures they hope to exploit who display the right attitudes. In 2012, Alex Jones, one of America’s most popular and influential talk-radio hosts, declared that the American attendees were violating the statute and should be prosecuted.
“This is illegal,” declared Jones, famous for using a bullhorn to lambaste elite attendees from afar, as he led chanting “Occupy Bilderberg” protesters outside the gathering in Chantilly, Virginia. “Government officials meeting and discussing policy with private interests in secret, or representatives of other governments, is a violation of the Logan Act.” More than a few activists, journalists, and others made similar statements.
As is the case every year, there were numerous prominent Americans in attendance at the secretive summit. Among them: then-NSA chief General Keith Alexander; Thomas Donilon, Obama’s former National Security Adviser; former U.S. National Security Adviser and “New World Order” promoter Henry Kissinger; failed GOP Presidential hopeful and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman; ex-Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.); former World Bank boss Robert Zoellick; Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Co-Chair and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; and many others. None were charged under the Logan Act, despite presumably lacking official permission to influence other governments’ policies.
The year before that summit, then-Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), a constitutionalist and a legendary figure in the liberty movement, also called for an investigation into possible violations of the Logan Act by Bilderberg attendees — specifically former Texas Governor Rick Perry. “This information about him going over there and violating the Logan Act and getting involved, I’m just impressed that that’s in the ordinary media — I think that’s encouraging, too,” Paul said during an interview on talk radio, saying that Perry’s attendance was “a sign that he’s involved in the international conspiracy.”
In 2014, Bilderberg attendee Diederik Samsom, then leader of the Socialist International-aligned Dutch Labor Party, confirmed to this writer and others outside the meeting in Copenhagen that, despite Bilderberg claims to the contrary, attendees are involved in influencing policy. Asked if he was there in an informal capacity, he responded: “Well, I’m formal, because being a politician, you’re 24/7, so there’s no way of exiting my role.” Numerous other attendees and leaders have made similar statements over the years, showing conclusively that policy is indeed set at the summit.
One top establishment figure who has likely violated the Logan Act on multiple occasions is globalist “bankster” David Rockefeller, a leading figure behind the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg network, and the Trilateral Commission. Like other members of his dynasty, influencing policy around the world is par for the course when it comes to the current Rockefeller patriarch. And in his case, he bragged about what would seem to be an obvious violation of the Logan Act in his own autobiography, Memoirs, published in 2002.
“Some even believe we [the Rockefellers] are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as internationalists and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will,” Rockefeller explains in his book. “If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
Another leading globalist who regularly meets in private with foreign officials is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who constantly promotes his vision of a totalitarian “New World Order.” Among other foreign officials, Kissinger regularly meets with the Kremlin’s Vladimir Putin and top officials from the mass-murdering Communist Chinese dictatorship. If anyone should be under suspicion of violating the act, it is Kissinger, who openly works toward imposing regional and the global governance on humanity.
At this point, it appears that Democrat and media claims that Flynn may have violated the Logan Act are beyond ridiculous. After all, he was not a “private person” in any sense of the word, but a top official of the incoming president. But revisiting the Logan Act and using the law to prosecute those establishment globalists who violate it would be an excellent idea. Perhaps U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions could dust it off and start seeking evidence of violations by subpoenaing Bilderberg steering committee members’ correspondence.
Photos at top (from the left): Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, David Rockefeller, and Henry Kissinger
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU.
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