Dem senator’s El Salvador trip might violate law liberals used as pretext for Michael Flynn probe: critics

Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s, D-Md., sudden trip to El Salvador to try to free deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia is getting the attention of critics who believe the Maryland Democrat may have violated a 1799 law prohibiting unauthorized diplomacy.

The Logan Act – named for former Pennsylvania Sen. George Logan – stipulates a fine and/or imprisonment for Americans corresponding with foreign officials “with intent to influence the[ir] measures … in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.”

Logan met with French diplomat Charles de Talleyrand after Paris rebuffed President John Adams, and he attempted to entreat him – in part via a letter from Vice President Thomas Jefferson – to end the Franco-American hostilities of the so-called “Quasi War.”

In that way, several prominent conservatives questioned whether Van Hollen’s actions similarly violated the law.

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“Why hasn’t this U.S. senator been arrested for violation of the Logan Act? It’s illegal to conduct your own foreign policy,” longtime Republican consultant Roger Stone tweeted.

WMAL host Vince Coglianese read the Logan Act statute aloud and asked his audience whether Van Hollen had done what the code outlined. 

“Is Chris Van Hollen violating the Logan Act?” Coglianese said. “Because this is what they accused General [Michael] Flynn of doing … the incoming national security advisor … who was merely having conversations with foreign diplomats [after] people had chosen President Donald Trump.”

Democrats previously seized on the Logan Act when Flynn contacted Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak prior to Trump being sworn in the first time, which ultimately led to an FBI probe and tanked his public-service career.

Notes from former FBI agent Peter Strzok read, “VP: Logan Act” and suggested then-Vice President Joe Biden floated using it against Flynn, while then-FBI director Jim Comey said the Kislyak correspondence appeared “legit.”

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Fox News contributor Byron York responded to an X question on the matter by saying that he repeatedly argued during the Flynn matter that the act is a “dead letter.”

“But politically, it’s useful to know that Sen. Van Hollen traveled to a foreign country to bash the President of the United States.”

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) sent a letter to Senate Ethics Committee Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla, asking to probe for violations, according to the New York Post.

AAF’s Thomas Jones said Garcia “is essentially an enemy combatant in the ongoing invasion … by transnational gangs.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Lankford for comment.

The act was last invoked by Trump critics after a book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward claimed the mogul held several calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin between his terms in the White House.

Trump was lambasted by the “Never-Trump” Lincoln Project and Kamala Harris over Woodward’s book’s claims.

Agents also considered getting Flynn to admit to breaking the Logan Act:

“What is our goal?” one of the notes from ex-FBI counterintelligence chief Bill Priestap read: “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”

After that situation, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., unsuccessfully sought a Logan Act repeal.

In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan suggested it be used against Rev. Jesse Jackson for his travels and communications to Cuba and Nicaragua. 

Trump previously accused both ex-Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., of violating the Logan Act via their contact with Iran in 2019 and 2020.

“It’s literally my job to meet with foreign leaders,” Murphy shot back, citing his position on a Senate Mideast subcommittee.

Ultimately, no one has been successfully prosecuted under the Logan Act, as the namesake Philadelphian himself was essentially grandfathered out.

Fox News Digital reached out to Van Hollen for comment.