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Intel: Why Trump is calling a Democrat’s Iran meeting illegal

President Donald Trump doubled down on his accusation today that Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., violated the law by meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the annual Munich Security Conference over the weekend.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduces Dr. Scott Gottlieb before a Senate Health Education Labor and Pension Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 5, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein - RC17DAB50AD0

President Donald Trump doubled down on his accusation today that Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., violated the law by meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the annual Munich Security Conference over the weekend.

Trump tweeted that Murphy’s meeting — as well as a 2018 meeting between Zarif and former Secretary of State John Kerry — violated an obscure 18th century law called the Logan Act. The rarely enforced 1799 law bars unauthorized American citizens from negotiating with foreign powers locked in disputes with the United States.

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