Trump is still sending “ambassadors” to foreign countries to conduct “diplomacy”. Vice News had the story recently about Trump sending Richard Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany, to the border of Kosovo and Serbia as Trump’s “envoy” demanding that the two economies be integrated.
The diplomatic community did a collective spit-take on Thursday when Donald Trump declared he had dispatched a former diplomat to Kosovo and Serbia as his “envoy,” despite having lost the last election and no longer being president. ….
Existing U.S. laws—the Logan Act—prohibit private U.S. citizens from pursuing foreign policy without very specific permission from the current U.S. president.
Responding to both Grenell’s criticism of Biden administration policy and Trump’s description of Grenell as his “envoy ambassador,” a White House official was quoted as saying: “Outside of his very active imagination, Donald Trump is no longer president and doesn’t have any ‘envoy ambassadors’ representing the United States.”
As is often the case with Trump’s crimes, they are often laws that few people have thought to break in history, but the Logan Act is still on the books.
§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.
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.
1 Stat. 613, January 30, 1799, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953 (2004).
Conducting shadow diplomacy is illegal for several reasons. It is dangerous for someone to be pretending that they are still President when they are not. It undermines the actual diplomacy conducted by the actual government of the United States. It is confusing to friends and allies, and it may provide pretexts for enemy actions. Shadow diplomacy could provoke a diplomatic incident or an actual violent conflict.
Also, as noted in the following MSNBC report, Trump might be sending other ‘envoys’ to other countries for other illegal reasons. So, you need to investigate this alleged crime. By the way, good job on the Bannon subpoena, but it sure seems like Team Trump can break the law faster than you can enforce it.