Did Don Jr break law during his meeting with Hungarian leader Orban?

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Donald Trump Jr. is looking for employment elsewhere, specifically in Hungary, four months after being issued a$ 4 million fine and a two-year ban on holding office positions for a New York company.

The Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry sent an invitation to the former president’s eldest baby to Budapest on Thursday night. He met with Viktor Orbán, the prime minister, and gave a talk titled” The World According to Donald Trump Jr.,” which was first reported by Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi.

Trump Jr’s attend focused on discussions about” the future of Hungarian- National relations, the ongoing Belarusian- Russian battle, and opportunities for peace creation”, according to Zoltan Kovacs, spokesperson for Orbán’s office.

According to numerous legal professionals, Trump Jr., who is not employed by the US government, and a foreign prime minister’s discussions of foreign policy raise concerns about the Logan Act, which forbids illicit political action in some conditions.

According to experts, the increasingly authoritarian attitude of the Hungarian government could function as a unit for Trump’s probable next president if he wins the election in November, and that Americans should pay notice as his eldest son speaks to a well-known conventional college with connections to Orbán’s Fidesz party.

The Independent repeatedly asked the Trump plan for opinion.

Trump Jr — who met with Orbán to explore immigration, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and US- Romanian relationships — followed in his family’s feet. The original leader met with Orbán in March.

However, according to Kim Scheppele, Princeton University’s professor of sociology and foreign affairs and University of Pennsylvania Law School’s associate professor, this raises constitutional concerns about Trump Jr.’s position.

According to Scheppele,” there is an exciting US legitimate question about whether personal citizens can try to influence US foreign policy by engaging in negotiations with foreign nations.” ” The Logan Act makes this illegal”.

Especially, Trump Jr, who does not keep any government office, spoke with Orbán regarding US foreign policy as it relates to Ukraine.

However, according to the Logan Act, any US citizen is prohibited from communicating with any international government, or any officer or agent there, with the intention to effect any unusual government’s actions or conduct.

Given that no one has been found guilty of violating the 1799 laws, any action by the Justice Department would be inappropriate because it would be jumped all over as being political, according to Donald Baker, former assistant attorney general at the US Department of Justice.

However, Baker said he thinks Donald Trump Jr.’s conversations about Ukraine are “questionable” because” Orbán is opposed to helping Ukraine, has blocked the Union from making a significant transaction to Ukraine, and so he is an ally of the Trump folks.”

If” Trump Jr. encouraged Orbán not to transfer the cash” or” to continue blocking the EU’s resources for Ukraine,” Baker continued, an example of a Logan Act infraction that could have occurred during those conversations.

In light of recent information, Baker told The Independent that the Logan Act needs to be taken into account more.” This is a topic we ought to remain discussing.”

He continued, noting that the former mayor’s conversation with Orbán earlier this year was also concerning under the Logan Act.

” It’s a worrying situation we ought to be talking about to have the Republicans ‘ likely candidate taking a position on foreign policy [as it relates to Russia and Ukraine ] getting close to actively opposing what the administration is doing,” Baker said.

Trump Jr. was scheduled to address a liberal Hungarian home college, Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), on Thursday evening. The occasion is not listed on the school’s common site as of Thursday.

Scheppele says the university serves as a” training surface” for users of Orbán’s Fidesz celebration. She claimed that the university is where liberal leaders gather to decide how to maintain the party’s hold on power.

” The MCC is a training ground for the younger people who are going to go into Orbán’s state”, Scheppele told The Independent.

The MCC was established in 1996 using donations from the Fidesz group. The New York Times reported that Orbán had given the academy$ 1.7 billion in federal resources and money as he campaigned for re-election the next year.

Scheppele said one of the major functions of the MCC is to keep Orbán’s hold on Hungary: “]The MCC] is also the idea factory for the Orbán government: ‘ How can we change the laws so we not lose power?'”

Under Orbán, Hungary is in a democratic backslide. Freedom House rates Hungary as only “partly free”, noting the country’s anti- immigration and anti- LGBTQ+ policies, as well as policies” that hamper the operations of opposition groups, journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organizations”.

Trump Jr.’s father and the Hungarian prime minister also have a long-standing ally.

Orbán went as far as to call the former president his” good friend” earlier this year when the duo met in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, Scheppele told The Independent, Trump— who famously threatened to become a dictator on day one of his potential second presidency — may be looking to Orbán as a model for policy.

According to Robert Benson, a senior policy analyst with the Center for American Progress, it is dangerous for American voters to support” American exceptionalism” and accept that the democratic backsliding in Hungary wo n’t likely take place in the US.

” I think our institutions are resilient,” Benson said,” but that resiliency requires a careful eye.” We ca n’t assume that we’re going to be okay by now. If you talk to Hungarians, they did n’t expect it to happen the way it did”.

There are several parallels between Trump and Orbán’s policies.

Trump has made his far- right, anti- immigration stance clear since day one of his 2016 presidential campaign. Similarly, Orbán has expressed radical views on immigration since 2015 — and in 2022, he said he did not want Hungarians to become “peoples of mixed race”.

Additionally, the two have abandoned NATO and its procedures. The ref=”https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-nato-russia-republican-maga-b2495132.html”>former president has threatened to violate NATO by allowing Russia to attack member states, meanwhile, Orbán delayed a vote on Sweden’s membership for 18 months. As a result, ref=”https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-nato-russia-ukraine-war-b2510581.html”>the country was not admitted until this year.

Additionally, both Scheppele and Benson cited Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for the upcoming presidential administration. Project 2025 also calls for several policy changes, including re-inputting the citizenship question on the US Census, in addition to replacing supposedly impartial federal officials with fellow conservatives.

Orbán’s success leading an “authoritarian” government relied on “decapitating” the civil service and replacing it with his extremist allies, which mirrors the Project 2025 strategy, Scheppele told The Independent.

Wes Coopersmith, Project 2025’s Chief of Staff for the Heritage Foundation, previously claimed that it would be “democratic” to replace employees with Republican allies if Trump were to win.

” We believe that the most democratic way to run the administration is with those who support the president, who voted for him, who support his policies, and who want to put those policies into practice,” Coopersmith said.

Just days ahead of Trump Jr’s scheduled visit, the European Parliament elections threw Orbán into an unprecedented, weakened position.

” Orbán, for the first time in 14 years, has a real electoral problem”, Scheppele told The Independent.

While the Fidesz party still received more votes than any other Hungarian party, they will only make up eleven of Hungary’s 21 EU delegates. What’s more, this weekend marked their worst performance since 2004 — long before Orbán’s reign began in 2010.

” I think he assumed that he was just going to, as usual, swamp the vote”, Scheppele said.

Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz insider who is now looking to end Orbán’s rule, is the politician responsible for bringing the Fidesz party numbers down.

” ]Orbán ] is still winning, but he has lost so much support”, Scheppele said. The emperor’s lack of clothing is suddenly apparent.

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