I was perusing the News this morning and lo and behold I see this:
https://time.com/6997281/viktor-orban-donald-trump-putin-nato/ BY JENNIFER JACOBS AND ALBERTO NARDELLI / BLOOMBERG JULY 11, 2024 12:45 AM EDT
Donald Trump has invited and will host Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, a known authoritarian, at his private residence in Florida, Maralago.
Since he is no longer president, and nothing more than a citizen of the United States at this time, I wondered why the point of the news story wasn't The Logan Act.
The Logan Act — 18 U.S. Code § 953 — https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title18/part1/chapter45&edition=prelim
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.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 744; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(K), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
[emphasis added for clarity]
The SCOTUS recently told us all that U.S. Presidents are immune from prosecution for any crimes which they might commit while ‘presidenting’.
Luckily for us, that immunity doesn’t (at least yet) apply to FORMER presidents.
Because from where I stand, this story reads like a map directly leading from Donald Trump to another courtroom, being tried for another crime he will have committed, should this meeting take place.
Violation of 18 U.S. Code § 953