Why did the NYT say Jared has no legal exposure ?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Why did the NYT say Jared has no legal exposure for trying to set up a secret server in the Russian embassy ? He was a private citizen at the time and even if he wasn't setting up a secret server in the office of a hostile power falls under the espionage statute.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I don't understand

how the media keeps glossing over that the fact that just because Drumpf won an election November 8, 2016, he (and his cabal) were not "official" until January 20, 2017. During the transition period, they go through all the background checks and start filling out paperwork and whatnot, but President Barack Obama and his staff were STILL in charge! John Kerry was STILL the Secretary of State.

I.e., IMHO, he violated the Logan Act (the law of which was originally passed in 1799).

[pnwmom]

2. They keep saying that the Logan Act is meaningless because

it hasn't put anyone in jail since its enactment.

But Congress has tried and failed to repeal the Logan Act -- and we've never had a President like Trump. Probably it's time to take the Logan Act out and dust it off.

[Scarsdale]

3. We never have had a

president like tRump!! So very true, the gop scraped the bottom of the barrel to find that tub 'o lard, with s**t for brains. I wonder if (in secret) they are afraid he will blow their cover, reveal their secret $$$ from Russia?? Are they waiting until his dementia becomes beyond control, then declare him incompetant?

[oberliner]

5. What about Reagan?

Remember Iran/Contra?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Well what might also be different in this case

is that this "back channel" thing was going on BEFORE the inauguration (December 2016) so Jared & Flynn were still "private citizens".

[The Wizard]

4. Isn't that the same newspaper

that reported WMD in Iraq? Didn't the Times report Whitewater was a criminal act worthy of a congressional investigation? Damned liberal media (fake news).

[Cicada]

6. Logan Act is void per desuetude doctrine

Desrshowitz said that because no one has been prosecuted under Logan Act in 200 years it is not enforceable. He called this the desuetude doctrine. Use it or lose it. Comey seems to have used the same idea when he said Hillary could not be prosecuted for her emails. No one has ever been prosecuted absent an intent for unauthorized people to get secrets. The law as written does not require that intent - it says gross negligence is enough - but the failure to ever prosecute for mere gross negligence means the negligence part of the law unenforcible. Dershowitz and Comey both believe the desuetude doctrine is valid criminal law. Thus the Logan Act is unenforceable because it has never in 200 years been enforced.

[former9thward]

7. Russia is not a "hostile power". North Korea is a hostile power.

We have plenty of treaties with Russia and they take our hitch hiking astronauts into space for us. Tens of thousands of U.S. tourists visit Russia every year.

When a candidate wins an election they are no longer a "private citizen" and neither are his top aides. The U.S. government funds a transition office and opens up all government offices to the incoming president. His top aides are provided with the same security and access to information as other top officials in the current administration.

That is why the NYT says what it says. Not because they have joined some conspiracy.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. He wanted to set up a secret server in the embassy of an adversary.

"Tens of thousands of U.S. tourists visit Russia every year. "

The fact that Americans visit Russia is of no moment. Thousands of Americans visited the Soviet Union every year including my uncle, my friend, and Bill Clinton.

I'm not a lawyer or a "DU lawyer" but I can cite many distinguished lawyers who believe he has legal exposure so there's that.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Um... as a former fed

as far as we know, none of them had been "sworn in" to government service so they were "private citizens" up until a certain point. Having a "transition office" is irrelevant until they have signed that SF-61. The question would be when was that done.