Sunday, January 7, 2018

How about collusion with Israel?

In the days before a late-2016 vote on a United Nations resolution that criticized Israel, then-President-elect Donald Trump and top aides made a last-ditch push to target a majority of the U.N. Security Council to scuttle the text, people familiar with the situation said.

The lobbying effort, which ultimately failed, was wider and more intense than has been reported. [...] It was also conducted against the wishes of the sitting U.S. government.

  NYT
Sounds like a criminal act to me. Success or failure isn't the question. The attempt is what violates the law.
The December 2016 push by Mr. Trump and his transition team came at the request of Israel and involved top aides including the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Mike Flynn and the current U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, according to the people familiar with the matter.

[...]

Mr. Flynn’s lies about it to federal officials have formed part of the basis of the December plea deal he struck that requires him to cooperate with investigators looking into whether the Trump team colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

[...]

Mr. Flynn in last month’s plea agreement admitted to having placed calls to officials from multiple countries, including Russia, about the Israel resolution and to having “falsely stated” to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he had only asked the countries about their position on the text. In fact, “a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team”—Mr. Kushner, according to people familiar with the matter—“directed Flynn” to contact the officials to “influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution,” according to the documents.

[...]

Legal experts have questioned whether the U.N. lobbying effort ran afoul of an 18th century law called the Logan Act, which bars unauthorized private citizens from negotiating with foreign officials in a dispute with the U.S.

[...]

Jennifer Rodgers, a Columbia Law School lecturer, said a transition team member could argue that any acts backed by an incoming president would be done by someone other than a private citizen and thus not in violation of the Logan Act. But, she said, “if you’re acting on behalf of a government, it should be the current, sitting government,” noting that the attempt to sway U.N. votes was contrary to the U.S. position at the time.

[...]

Obama administration officials had asked the transition team to stay out of U.S. policy-making until Mr. Trump was in the White House, according to people familiar with the matter.
They shouldn't have to ask.
Mr. Kushner called the British ambassador to the U.S., Kim Darroch, urging the U.K. to delay the vote, these people said. Mr. Flynn spoke with Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis about the vote while the minister was at a loud holiday party in Madrid, according to a person familiar with the call.

Ms. Haley tried to contact [then US ambassador to the UN, Samantha] Power, but she declined to take or return the call, telling her staff that Ms. Haley’s outreach was inappropriate.

[...]

About two hours before the scheduled 3 p.m. vote on Dec. 23, 2016, Mr. Flynn called Malaysia’s Permanent Mission to the U.N., according to a Malaysian official. The mission staff, aware of the likely reason for the call, refused to connect him to their representative, the official said.

[...]

At the U.N., ambassadors discussed at holiday parties and in late-night phone calls how best to respond, some noting that Messrs. Flynn and Kushner had told them the incoming administration “would remember” how they voted.

[...]

Mr. Trump discussed the U.N. resolution with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on the day the vote was scheduled. The president-elect made it clear that putting the resolution to a vote would damage Egypt’s standing with his administration.
They were bullying before they even got into office.
The resolution passed with 14 members of the Security Council voting in favor and the U.S. abstaining. Mr. Trump, in a Dec. 28, 2016, tweet condemning the result, wrote: “Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!”
A day that will live in infamy.

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