The Logan Act is a U.S. federal law from 1799 that makes it a crime for unauthorized private citizens to conduct diplomacy with foreign governments in disputes involving the United States. The core idea: foreign policy is the exclusive domain of the U.S. government, and private interference could undermine national interests.
Maia Johnson has barely hung her coat on the hook of her new political post, and already the whispers have begun. In the dim hallways of Washington, where gossip travels faster than self-indulgent legislation, her name is now being murmured alongside one of America’s most theatrical, toothless statutes: the Logan Act.
