On Friday, I posted on the efforts by former Secretary of State John Kerry to work some kind of a deal with the Iranians and others to salvage the Iran nuclear deal. In it, I pointed out that the same voices that were baying for Mike Flynn’s blood when he contacted Russia–while on the Trump transition team, while on the federal payroll, and at the behest of the president-elect–because of some perceived violation of the Logan Act were all strangely silent.

The leftwing mouthbreathers at Media Matters (sorry no links to hate sites) have tried to defend Kerry’s actions by finding some law professor to claim this is different…because Trump:

“The act only applies to conduct that is designed to ‘defeat the measures of the United States’ or influence the conduct of foreign governments,” Vladeck said. “If all Kerry is doing is working to keep in place something that’s still technically a ‘measure of the United States,’ I don’t see how the statute would apply even if someone was crazy enough to try it.”

This is just, as they, pettifoggery. The Iran deal is not a treaty. It is not even an executive agreement. This is how the Obama’s State Department defined the deal:

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document. The JCPOA reflects political commitments between Iran, the P5+1 (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China) and the European Union.

Or, more specifically, it was a deal cut between Obama and the others and it does not have the force of law much less constitute a “measure of the United States.”

Never one to let any opportunity to troll slip by, President Trump was on Twitter this morning making the same case.

The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal. He was the one that created this MESS in the first place!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018

As a matter of principle, Trump should insist that John Kerry get a visit from the nice FBI men because turnabout is fair play. And then he should insist that Congress repeal this monstrosity that is only used as a club with which to beat Republicans.

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