Joe Biden sure is lucky his name isn’t “Michael Flynn,” because if it was, he’d have a Kafkaesque legal battle ahead of himself for years to come.
While Biden has only been crowned the president-elect by the media, he’s already in the process of talking to foreign governments about his planned agenda (if he can remember it).
As The Blaze reported:
Speaking on MSNBC Monday, Rhodes said that no matter what legal challenges Trump’s team launches, none will stick, and Biden is already acting like the definite election winner. “But here’s the thing. This is going to happen anyway,” Rhodes said of a presidential transition.
“Foreign leaders are already having phone calls with Joe Biden, talking about the agenda they’re going to pursue January 20th,” Rhodes admitted. “If that reality hasn’t sunk in yet for some people in the White House, it will sink in when they have to leave on January 20th. And they’re going to be in for a rude awakening here.”
As those who followed the Spygate scandal are aware, this sort of behavior is exactly what led the FBI to investigate Michael Flynn. Flynn spoke to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak after Trump won in 2016 but before he was sworn into office. Sally Yates reportedly expressed faux concern that this conversation violated the Logan Act, and the rest is history.
The Logan Act is vague and potentially unconstitutional. As it criminalized unauthorized negotiations between U.S. citizens and foreign governments, it would have legal ramifications for several individuals if it were enforced (e.g., Jimmy Carter’s peace efforts as a private citizen and Dennis Rodman traveling to North Korea). Even the Act’s namesake, George Logan, wasn’t deterred by it and traveled to Britain in 1810 to try to de-escalate tensions that eventually led to the War of 1812.
Only two people have been indicted under this Act, in 1803 and 1852. That’s an average of less than one person per century. No one has been convicted under the Logan Act. It’s hardly an ideal legal avenue to prosecute someone during a critical presidential transition involving dealings with a foreign power. Yet this is the law that propelled the Russia collusion narrative among the media into the Trump presidency.
We of course don’t actually believe that Biden or anyone in his orbit should be charged under the Act, we’re just highlighting the obvious hypocrisy here.
Ted Cruz confronted former FBI head Andy McCabe (who helped advance the witch hunt against Flynn) to his face over this hypocrisy earlier today – and received just as unsatisfying a response as you’d expect.
Hopefully a Michael Flynn pardon is coming soon.
