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Inside the Law? Bilderberg, US Citizens and the Logan Act
By Will Banyan
The recent plea deal by President Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn—where he pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his transition period discussions with the Russian Ambassador to the US concerning sanctions against Russia and a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution condemning Israel—prompted a great deal of commentary about whether or not he had in fact violated the Logan Act. Promulgated by the US Congress in 1799, the Logan Act (Figure 1) prohibits American citizens acting “without authority” from the US Government from engaging in any “correspondence or intercourse” with a foreign government or its representatives that interferes with US foreign policy. To some analysts it is obvious that Flynn’s attempt to convince Russia to vote against the UNSC Resolution was the “most explicit violation of the Act in U.S. history.” There is, argue legal scholars Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner, “little doubt” that Flynn and an unnamed “very senior member” of the Trump team (probably Jared Kushner) “violated the Logan Act…” To other observers, suspicious of the “Russia-gate” narrative, such claims were clearly a “fevered fantasy” as the Logan Act was designed to “prevent private meddling in U.S. foreign policy, not to tie the hands of high-level officials of an incoming administration.”
Engrossing though this debate may be, other observers have been more concerned with a seeming double standard at work where US citizens attending the annual Bilderberg Meetings appear to be exempt from the Logan Act (Figure 2). Kit Daniels writing for Infowars (Dec. 1, 2017), for example, attacked the “hypocrisy” of the Washington Post that condemned Flynn for breaking the Logan Act for his actions as a “private citizen”, while the Post’s billionaire owner and Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos (currently worth US$100 billion), “also a private citizen” could attend Bilderberg where he “met with foreign leaders to talk about foreign affairs” with total impunity. When this issue first came up earlier this year, Alex Newman in the John Birch Society’s The New American (Feb. 16, 2017), also took issue with the “anti-Trump voices” claiming Flynn had violated the Logan Act. He warned:
But the globalists, Democrats, and others touting the Logan Act should be very careful what they wish for. If the act were to actually be enforced, more than a few globalists and senior members of the ruling establishment might find themselves behind bars.
As an example of the “establishment globalists” double standards, Newman focused on Bilderberg, the annual summit of “top globalists and lesser figures”, where it had been admitted by at least one participant “policy is indeed set.” He noted how a number of activists, such as Alex Jones and former Congressman Ron Paul, had argued that American Bilderberg participants “were violating the statute and should be prosecuted.” Hoping to target “establishment insiders”, Newman suggested that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions should locate the Logan Act, “dust it off and start seeking evidence of violations by subpoenaing Bilderberg steering committee members’ correspondence.”
The recent plea deal by President Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn—where he pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his transition period discussions with the Russian Ambassador to the US concerning sanctions against Russia and a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution condemning Israel—prompted a great deal of commentary about whether or not he had in fact violated the Logan Act. Promulgated by the US Congress in 1799, the Logan Act (Figure 1) prohibits American citizens acting “without authority” from the US Government from engaging in any “correspondence or intercourse” with a foreign government or its representatives that interferes with US foreign policy. To some analysts it is obvious that Flynn’s attempt to convince Russia to vote against the UNSC Resolution was the “most explicit violation of the Act in U.S. history.” There is, argue legal scholars Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner, “little doubt” that Flynn and an unnamed “very senior member” of the Trump team (probably Jared Kushner) “violated the Logan Act…” To other observers, suspicious of the “Russia-gate” narrative, such claims were clearly a “fevered fantasy” as the Logan Act was designed to “prevent private meddling in U.S. foreign policy, not to tie the hands of high-level officials of an incoming administration.”
Figure 1: The Logan Act
But the globalists, Democrats, and others touting the Logan Act should be very careful what they wish for. If the act were to actually be enforced, more than a few globalists and senior members of the ruling establishment might find themselves behind bars.
As an example of the “establishment globalists” double standards, Newman focused on Bilderberg, the annual summit of “top globalists and lesser figures”, where it had been admitted by at least one participant “policy is indeed set.” He noted how a number of activists, such as Alex Jones and former Congressman Ron Paul, had argued that American Bilderberg participants “were violating the statute and should be prosecuted.” Hoping to target “establishment insiders”, Newman suggested that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions should locate the Logan Act, “dust it off and start seeking evidence of violations by subpoenaing Bilderberg steering committee members’ correspondence.”
Figure 2: General Flynn and the Bilderberg Double Standard?
The belief of Daniels and Newman that US Bilderberg participants are violating the Logan Act is hardly new, having been raised repeatedly by alternative activists and journalists, (usually derided in polite company, as “conspiracy theorists” and “cranks”), not just in recent years (see Figure 3), but for decades. The late Jim Tucker, for example, the Bilderberg-chasing reporter for the Liberty Lobby’s publications Spotlight and American Free Press, raised this subject in his 1973 interview with Forrest Murden, an “international public‐affairs and management consultant” whose consulting firm, Murden and Company, handled “administrative duties” for the Bilderberg Group in the US (later becoming “American Friends of Bilderberg, Inc.”). Tucker had asked if the deliberations at Bilderberg “violated Logan Act prohibitions against private citizens trying to influence foreign policy”, but in his response Murden insisted these discussions were “common and legal” (Jim Tucker’s Bilderberg Diary, p.15).
Most of the existing commentary on this issue argues, with varying degrees of certainty and accuracy, that American citizens participating in Bilderberg Meetings are breaching the Logan Act. “Many people believe this meeting is possibly a violation of the Logan Act…” podcaster Mark Dice wrote in his 2015 book The Bilderberg Group: Facts and Fiction (p.6). According to Daniel Estulin, in his book, The True Story of the Bilderberg Group (2007), the Logan Act makes it: “absolutely illegal for elected to officials to meet in private with influential business executives to debate and design foreign policy.” Estulin identified no less than 21 prominent Americans who have “flouted the Logan Act” (ibid, p.28).
“There are reports circulating that some of the world’s most important decisions are actually made at the Bilderberg Conferences”, wrote Anne Sewell on Digital Journal (Jun 2, 2012). “However,” she continued, “if this IS the case, then a certain long-standing federal law prohibits what these elite beings are doing.” That law was of course the Logan Act. Also in 2012, The New American’s Alex Newman wrote of the “legal problem raised by critics is that federal law specifically bars any U.S. citizen without government permission from working with foreign officials on matters of policy.” According to “Bilderberg opponents”, the Logan Act “means that Americans meeting with foreign officials at the secretive gathering should be investigated and eventually prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” The American Free Press (Apr. 5, 2015), argued that it “appears much more clear cut” that US participants at Bilderberg are breaking the Logan Act. This was because:
American private citizens (CEOs, bankers, think-tankers and academics, as well as some elected U.S. officials) who are with Bilderberg do fraternize, discuss issues and correspond with other Bilderberg members, some of whom are foreign officials who currently hold office with official duties and powers. Plus it’s all very hush-hush.
Figure 3: Yet More American Bilderberg Participants Violating the Logan Act?
The fact that Bilderberg has a proven track record of creating consensus for policy that is enacted shortly down the line also betrays the group as wholly undemocratic and criminal in its secrecy, further violating the Logan Act
Seemingly inspired by Infowars, in 2012 alternative news journalist Brian Hill called the Fairfax County Police to report “the Bilderberg Group for violation of The Logan Act.”
A Missing Link
Despite this seeming certainty that US participants at Bilderberg are violating the Logan Act, none of this commentary actually cites any legal opinions. More remarkable is that it also ignores advice on Bilderberg and the Logan Act provided by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that has been on the public record since 1971. This official advice comes in the form of correspondence between the DOJ and US Congressman John R. Rarick (1924-2009), a four-term Democrat Congressman for Louisiana.
A controversial figure, Rarick was an ardent segregationist, who had dismissed Martin Luther King as a “Communist errand boy”; was accused of being a patsy for the “neo-Nazi” Liberty Lobby, from which he had received $3000 in contributions in 1968; who was denounced by a fellow Democrat Congressman in 1969 for promoting a “view of the world [that] borders on the absurd…”; and then, in 1972, he was condemned by another colleague as the “leading racist in this Congress.” Given his Liberty Lobby connections and that organization’s interest in Bilderberg, it was not surprising that Rarick would take up the issue in Congress.
Rarick had focused on the Bilderberg meeting, held over April 23-25, 1971 in Woodstock, Vermont. On May 5, 1971, Rarick told Congress about the “top secret” meeting of “nobility, international bankers and international bureaucrats…” He considered it “strange” that the “real masterminds of the international movement, including custodians of great wealth”, could hold “secret meetings in New England without one wire service or TV network carrying this story.” The Bilderbergers, he suggested, were not interested in “saving” America, but were “plotting its destruction” (Congressional Record, Vol. 117, Part 10, pp.13688-89). Speaking again on May 10, Rarick floated the theory the Bilderbergers meeting at Woodstock “may just have masterminded the assault on the stability of the U.S. dollar” (Congressional Record, Vol. 117, Part 11, p.14189).
He returned to the subject again on May 24, but this time through the lens of the Logan Act. Rarick speculated there was link between the “secrecy of the Bilderberg meetings” and the Logan Act “which prohibits unauthorized contacts between a citizen of the United States and an officer or agent of a foreign government…” He deduced from the absence of official announcements that the Bilderberg meeting in Woodstock “was not authorized by the U.S. Government.” He also noted that “US citizens” attended and engaged with foreign officials and that one of the topics—“the possibility of a change of the American role in the world and its consequence”—focused on US foreign relations. From this Rarick argued:
So, it seems plausible that one or more of the U.S. citizens present at the recent secret Bilderberg meeting could very well have committed a criminal offense under the Logan Act. Could this be the reason for the veiled secrecy? (Congressional Record, Vol.117, Part 13, p.16698; emphasis added).
Nearly seven weeks later on July 16 Rarick returned to the House of Representatives with an update. He noted he had written to the Department of Justice on 1 June (see Figure 4), enclosing a copy of his May 24 speech, seeking their “opinion of the Bilderberg meeting and whether it constituted a possible violation of Logan Act.” He also asked “what action was contemplated by the Attorney General.” In the letter itself Rarick suggested that “scrutiny of the entire proceedings of the three-day meeting would be necessary…” to determine if there had been any “intent” by the US Bilderberg participants to interfere with US foreign policy.
Figure 4: Rep. John Rarick’s letter to the US Attorney General (as reproduced in the Congressional Record)
However, you also pointed out all the details of the discussions, conclusions and recommendations reached have been suppressed from the public and one can only speculate as to what transpired. The Department had no coverage of this meeting and we have no information which would justify requesting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct a criminal investigation of the activities of presumably innocent citizens [emphasis added].
In a final flourish, the DOJ held out the possibility of an investigation, but only when it had received “a specific allegation or specific information indicating a violation of the Logan Act.” Rarick was incensed by this, arguing that “Many Americans” would be “shocked” to learn that if they expect “any action” from the DOJ on this matter, it would be up to the citizens “to infiltrate the secret meetings and supply the data providing specific allegations or specific information indicating a violation of the Logan Act” (Congressional Record, Vol. 117, Part 19, pp.25649-50).
Figure 5: Response from the US Department of Justice (as reproduced in the Congressional Record)
The Escape Clause
The Rarick-DOJ correspondence has been publicly available in the Congressional Record for nearly 46 years, yet most Bilderberg critics seem to be unaware of it. This is odd as its existence has hardly been kept a secret. Rarick’s main contribution to Bilderberg lore, putting into the Congressional Record (Vol.117, Part 24) on September 15, 1971 Eugene Pasymowski and Carl Gilbert’s lengthy article “Bilderberg: The Cold War Internationale”, cites his previous Bilderberg entries, including “Bilderberg Case: Reply from U.S. Attorney General’s Office” (Figure 6). This piece, which is available on the internet, has been cited in numerous books, both academic and conspiratorial, for years. Yet the fact Rarick received advice from the DOJ on the Bilderberg and the Logan Act has been ignored. Mark Dice in The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction, for example, quoted from Rarick’s introduction to the Pasymowski and Gilbert paper—erroneously presented by Dice as a “ten-page statement” that Rarick himself had “typed up” (p.45)—but he skipped over Rarick’s citation of his correspondence with the DOJ on Bilderberg and the Logan Act.
Figure 6: Another Oversight?
Authorization: The DOJ conceded that in his May 24 remarks to Congress Rarick had correctly observed there appeared to be “elements of a violation of the Logan Act” by virtue of the presence of US citizens and representatives of foreign governments at the same event. This presumably covered Rarick’s assumption the meeting did not have official US Government authorization because of the absence of an official announcement, although the DOJ never addressed it directly. There are grounds to believe, however, that US citizens have explicit or implicit authorization from the US Government to be at Bilderberg. In their recent consideration of the limitations of the Logan Act on Lawfare (Dec. 7, 2017), the aforementioned University of Chicago legal scholars Hemel and Posner argue that,
…when the current U.S. government implicitly or explicitly acquiesces to contacts between citizens and foreign states, those contacts do not violate the Logan Act provided that the current U.S. government is apprised of their nature and purpose…
Hemel and Posner focus on two examples: in 1961 a group led by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt tried to negotiate the release of prisoners held by Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion; and in 1975 Senators George McGovern and John Sparkman also initiated contacts with the Cuban government. In each case, accusations were made that they had violated the Logan Act, but the US Government disputed this acknowledging the visits occurred with the full knowledge and implicit assent of the administration at the time.
Would the participation of US citizens in Bilderberg meetings also fall into this category of implicit or explicit US Government authorization? The historical record strongly suggests this to be case with official authorization coming from the highest levels. In fact, in the lead up to the first Bilderberg meeting, held in the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands in May 1954, the Eisenhower Administration had not only explicitly authorized such participation, but had asked a non-government group to take responsibility for organizing it:
In September 1953, the Committee for a National Trade Policy, a tax-exempt group of businessmen devoted to trade liberalization led by John S. Coleman of the Burroughs Corporation, was asked by C.D. Jackson, Special Assistant to the President for International Affairs who had been tasked with dealing with the proposed meetings, if they could “take on this project for the American side.”[*]
Coleman and several members of the Committee not only agreed to coordinate the US response to the emerging organization – then only known as “The Group” – but also sent out invitations to more than 40 prominent Americans, asking if they were willing to attend the conference as “guests of the Dutch Government.”[†]
Personally briefed on the proposed conference in March 1954 by Bilderberg co-founder Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Eisenhower “assured him that he was interested in the undertaking…” and later encouraged the participation of US labor leaders and Congressional representatives in the first meeting.[‡]
Since then, Bilderberg has been endorsed implicitly at the presidential level either by patronising Bilderberg in person or through authorizing high-level surrogates. These actions, not only amount to an endorsement of Bilderberg, but also constitute implicit authorization for US citizens to participate in Bilderberg meetings:
In March 1955, President Eisenhower directed his Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs, Gabriel Hauge, to attend the second Bilderberg meeting, then due to be held in Barbizon, France (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Implicit Authorization: Memorandum from President Eisenhower directing his Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs Gabriel Hauge, to attend the 1955 meeting in Barbizon, France
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