Is Donald Trump in breach of the Logan Act in relation to his Mar-a-Lago meeting with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, as described in Edward Luce’s excellent column “Democracy dies in Trumpian boredom” (Opinion, March 14)?
The rarely-invoked Logan Act is a criminal statute enacted in 1799 to prohibit private US citizens from interfering in relations between the US and foreign governments. The Act was passed in response to George Logan’s unauthorised negotiations with the revolutionary French government in 1798, over merchant shipping rights. It was signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799.
Given US policy is to support Ukraine in its war with Russia and Orbán opposes such a stance — and has taken active steps to hold up agreement among EU partners for an aid package for Ukraine — could Trump have violated the Logan Act in his meeting with Orbán, the quasi-authoritarian Hungarian prime minister?
Upon his return to Hungary, Orbán proclaimed Trump “a man of peace” because, firstly, Trump had promised Orbán that there would be no more US military aid to Ukraine, and second, Trump had indicated that without US aid, Ukraine would not be able to go on fighting Russia for much longer. On March 10, Putin cheered Orbán’s announcement. As a private citizen Trump was promising Putin’s main European ally that he would cause the Speaker and Trump’s other Maga (Make America Great Again) allies in the House to prevent the current Senate-passed Ukraine military aid bill from ever coming to a vote — even though a majority of House members apparently support it.
For me this reveals a deliberate attempt by Trump to disrupt US international relations with its key ally Ukraine as well as with America’s Nato allies (who will conclude that the US is a less reliable defence partner than they have counted on the US being). As such, I find it a credible Logan Act violation.
Even so, I think prosecutorial discretion would justify not adding a Logan Act grand jury investigation to the existing string of Department of Justice prosecutions of Trump. Enough seems enough.
But I really think that the Logan Act issues very much deserves to become part of the current political discussions — since Trump appears to be seeking to undermine the credibility of the US as a reliable military ally in Europe by dealing directly in person with a foreign prime minister, who is seen as Russia’s main European ally.
Donald I Baker
Assistant Attorney-General (1976-77), US Department of Justice, Washington, DC, US
This post was originally published on Financial Times
