Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal, who identifies as a democrat socialist recently said that she met with the Cuban dictator, and they discussed how to help Cuba import oil. This is a potential violation of U.S. law, and the Department of Justice should investigate this.
There is the good ole Logan Act that prevents someone unauthorized by the executive branch to conduct diplomacy with foreign governments, and a violation would merit between six months to three years in prison, and she has violated it. But we just decided not to enforce it.
The Logan Act is not the only law she has violated.
For instance, 18 U.S.C. § 371 reads, “If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
Chief Justice William Howard Taft wrote in a Supreme Court opinion:
To conspire to defraud the United States means primarily to cheat the Government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest. It is not necessary that the Government shall be subjected to property or pecuniary loss by the fraud, but only that its legitimate official action and purpose shall be defeated by misrepresentation, chicane or the overreaching of those charged with carrying out the governmental intention.
Indeed, Jayapal interfered with and obstructed a lawful government function. In fact, the Constitution gives the most power to the president in foreign policy, and domestic policy, and Jayapal was undermining legitimate exercise of presidential power, which is setting Cuba policy.
After the Trump administration’s success in Venezuela, the new government in Caracas is doing what we are saying. They have kicked out Cuban forces, and they have stopped selling oil to Cuba under pressure from the U.S. The Trump administration has imposed additional sanctions on Cuba to add to the economic pressure. As a result, Cuba is on the verge of economic collapse.
The Trump administration is using this as leverage to negotiate an agreement with Havana so that the communist regime, which is our enemy and hated by the Cuban people, steps down and allows a government that cares for the well-being of the Cuban people to take over.
18 U.S.C. § 371 is not the only law she is breaking. There are many other laws that punish evading U.S. sanctions. Some of these laws are general for any sanctions, but there are also Cuba specific laws. Some of them she might be violating (because, as far as we know, she has done this just out of love for communism and not received a payment, she might not violate certain laws), and some of them she is definitely violating. That is what investigations are for. We have a legitimate cause to believe that she is breaking the law, and the Department of Justice led by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche should look into it to make sure. It is especially important that we don’t let her off the hook.
Jayapal is not a random member of Congress. Until last year, she was the chair of the powerful Progressive Caucus. She is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and she is in the House Democratic Caucus’s leadership as a senior whip. She is undermining U.S. foreign policy, hoping that her political prominence will protect her from justice.
That is not America. Powerful or not, you should be held accountable by the law. In fact, the more powerful you are, the more important it is that the law applies to you. There is a country where the average citizen faces the law, but the powerful don’t. It’s called Cuba.
Jayapal herself would agree. She posted a clip of Jack Smith saying, “If we do not hold the most powerful people in our society to the same standards of the rule of law, it could be catastrophic, because, if if they don’t have to follow the law, it’s very easy to understand why people would think that they don’t have to follow the law.” Well, Jayapal is breaking the law here, and by her own standards it would be catastrophic if she is not punished for it.
The Department of Justice should investigate her and, if they conclude that she has broken the law, she should go to prison.