Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s unexpected trip to El Salvador to advocate for the release of deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia is drawing scrutiny from critics who argue the Maryland Democrat may have broken a centuries-old law prohibiting unauthorized diplomacy.
The Logan Act, named after Pennsylvania Senator George Logan, prohibits private citizens from engaging with foreign governments “with intent to influence their measures … in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.”
Violations can result in fines or imprisonment up to three years. Should there be charges, they would be filed by the Justice Department at Attorney General Pam Bondi’s direction.
The law was enacted in 1799 after Logan met with French diplomat Charles de Talleyrand, without official authorization, following France’s rejection of overtures from President John Adams. Logan attempted to ease tensions in the “Quasi War,” partly through correspondence from then–Vice President Thomas Jefferson.
Several prominent conservatives have since questioned whether Van Hollen’s actions violated the law, Fox News reported.
“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 GOP activist and consultant Roger Stone tweeted.
On Friday, WMAL host Vince Coglianese read the Logan Act statute aloud and asked his audience whether Van Hollen had violated 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.”
“The Logan Act says any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with the intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than three years or both,” Coglianese told his listeners.
Democrats previously invoked the Logan Act in response to Michael Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak prior to Donald Trump’s first inauguration—a controversy that ultimately triggered an FBI investigation and derailed Flynn’s public-service career.
Notes from former FBI agent Peter Strzok included the line “VP: Logan Act,” suggesting that then–Vice President Joe Biden proposed using the statute against Flynn. However, then–FBI Director James Comey reportedly remarked that Flynn’s communications with Kislyak appeared “legit.”
Fox News contributor Byron York responded to a question on X by stating that he had consistently argued during the Flynn controversy that the Logan Act is a “dead letter.”
The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) has sent a letter to Senate Ethics Committee Chairman James Lankford (R-Okla.), requesting an investigation into possible violations, according to the New York Post.
“Mr. Abrego-Garcia is essentially an enemy combatant in the ongoing invasion of the United States by transnational gangs,” AAF President Thomas Jones wrote to the heads of the Senate Ethics Committee and Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). “Despite the overwhelming evidence, Senator Van Hollen decided that he would use Senate funds to fly to El Salvador and advocate for an enemy of the United States.”
Jones added: “Van Hollen was in El Salvador meeting with leaders of the Salvadorian government to attempt to secure Mr. Garcia’s release. It is hard to imagine a more hostile intrusion into U.S. foreign policy than attempting to smuggle a foreign enemy combatant into the United States.”
The Trump administration presented courtroom evidence proving that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. President Trump has declared MS-13 a terrorist organization and its members transnational combatants.