Donald Trump may have violated another federal law – Legal Analyst

Donald Trump may have violated another federal law after reports that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly continued to interact with each other after the former president left office, lawyer and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said Saturday.

Journalist Bob Woodward's new book is called Warclaims Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, and Putin have had up to seven phone conversations since the start of 2021 and that the former president asked an aide to leave the room so they could speak.

The book, obtained by CNN ahead of its Oct. 15 release, is based on hundreds of hours of firsthand interviews and highlights newly reported details of high-stakes confrontations during the Trump and Joe Biden presidencies.

Reacting to the revelations on Tuesday morning, Trump's communications director Steven Cheung said Newsweek via email that Woodward's book belonged in a “bargain bin.”

“None of these made-up Bob Woodward stories are true and are the work of a truly insane and deranged man suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Cheung said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Bloomberg in a written statement on Wednesday that while Trump sent Putin COVID-19 testing equipment in 2020, another allegation in Woodward's book, he disputed the account of the two men's phone calls.

When asked about the alleged shipment of COVID-19 tests to Russia, Trump told ABC News on Wednesday that the claim was “false.”

Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, spoke in a YouTube video on Saturday about the reported phone calls and whether they violated the Logan Act, a federal law that prohibits citizens from engaging in diplomatic communications without authorization Relations with foreign governments involved in disputes with the US

“Violation of the Logan Act carries a prison sentence of up to three years. So yeah, we all want to know: Did Donald Trump violate the Logan Act? And here is the answer. Maybe he did,” Kirschner said.

He added: “And the reason I have to put it that way is because we know from Bob Woodward's new blockbuster reporting… there are reports that Donald Trump has had up to seven private telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin.” This is currently the crux of the matter, the devil is in the details. We have no report on what exactly these phone calls involve.”

Kirschner said that “based on the evidence reported, there is sufficient evidence of potential criminal activity that the FBI can and should initiate an investigation into the nature of these phone calls.”

Newsweek Trump's spokesman emailed for comment.

Kirschner is not the first to comment on whether Trump violated the Logan Act. According to Axios, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign team said on Tuesday that Trump's involvement in diplomacy outside of government could be illegal under the Logan Act – a view also echoed by former Biden White House adviser Susan Rice on X , formerly Twitter, shared on Wednesday.

“Furthermore, this appears to be a violation of the Logan Act. Exactly what Trump falsely accused John Kerry of. Another blatant Trump crime,” she wrote.

In 2019, Trump accused Kerry, former President Barack Obama's secretary of state, of violating the Logan Act for allegedly participating in negotiations with Iran, including private meetings with Iranian officials during the Trump administration to pressure Tehran , to stick to the Obama administration's brokered nuclear deal with Iran. Kerry has denied any allegations of wrongdoing and has never been charged.

Despite allegations that Trump may have violated the Logan Act, enacted in 1799, the law has rarely been enforced, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report.

There were only two prosecutions under the Logan Act, in 1803 and 1853, which did not result in a conviction. In addition, the law has rarely been used due to doubts about its constitutionality, including whether it violates free speech protections, the report said.