Donald Trump May Have Violated Another Federal Law—Legal Analyst

Donald Trump may have violated another federal law after it was reported that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly continued to interact after the former president left office, attorney and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said on Saturday.

Journalist Bob Woodward’s new book called War, alleges Trump, the GOP’s presidential nominee, and Putin have had as many as seven phone calls since early 2021 and that the former president asked one aide to leave the room so they could speak.

The book, obtained by CNN ahead of its release on October 15, draws from hundreds of hours of firsthand interviews and spotlights newly reported details of high-stakes confrontations during the Trump and Joe Biden presidencies.

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

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

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also told Bloomberg in a written statement on Wednesday that while Trump had sent Putin COVID-19 testing equipment in 2020, which was another allegation in Woodward’s book, he denied the report about 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 if it violates the Logan Act, a federal law that prohibits citizens from engaging without authorization in diplomacy with foreign governments that are in dispute with the U.S.

“A violation of the Logan Act carries with it up to three years in prison. So yes, we all want to know; Did Donald Trump violate the Logan Act? And here’s the answer. He might have,” Kirschner said.

He added: “And the reason I have to phrase it that way is because what we know based on blockbuster new reporting by Bob Woodward…there are reports Donald Trump has as many as seven phone calls, private phone calls with Vladmir Putin. Here is the sticking point right now, the devils in the details, what we have no reporting on is precisely what those phone conversations involve.”

Kirschner said that “based on the evidence that’s been reported there is enough evidence of potential crime that the FBI can and should have open investigations into the nature of these phone calls.”

Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.

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

“Additionally, this would seem to be a violation of the Logan Act. Exactly what Trump falsely accused John Kerry of. Another apparent 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 urge Tehran to stay in the Iran Nuclear Deal, which was brokered by the Obama administration. Kerry has denied any accusations of wrongdoing and was never charged.

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

There have been only two prosecutions under the Logan Act, in 1803 and 1853, neither of which resulted in a conviction. In addition, the act has rarely been used because of questions over its constitutionality, including whether it violates free speech protections, according to the report.