Former Secretary of State John Kerry has not been authorized to represent the United States by the government, and should not be conducting talks with Iran to try to undermine President Donald Trump's agenda, Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday.
"We know for a fact John Kerry talked to the foreign minister three or four times," the Florida Republican, who has been in contact with the Department of Justice to look into whether Kerry violated federal law, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
"We have seen reporting, and we have seen reporting to foreign heads of state, to wait Trump out when it comes to the Iran deal."
Under the Logan Act, Rubio said, a U.S. citizen is prohibited from acting without the authority of the U.S. government to undermine the government's foreign policy.
"I don't think he would deny it," said Rubio. "It seems he has been bragging about it. He thinks he's doing a heroic thing but he's violating the law. Ultimately this needs to be looked at because not only should there be consequences but the precedent this sets is disturbing."
Kerry has pointed out that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has met with every world leader in the past two or three decades, and Rubio agreed that simply meeting is not illegal.
"What is illegal is a concerted effort to use that to undermine the foreign policy of the United States," said Rubio. "If he is meeting with the leaders and working with them and others to figure out how to undermine U.S. foreign policy, then he is violating the Logan Act."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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