Posted on 07/01/2018 11:42:42 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Yes, there is: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/912
Just plain wrong.
From the story: “Melendez said last week that he tricked Trump into believing he was New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D).”
That would be an admission against interest and therefore admissible under the relevant heresay rules.
Here’s the law: “Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Pretty sure admittedly “tricking” the President qualifies as falsely assuming or pretending.
The call should not have been returned until verified. It reveals very lax security by some staff members to say the least. It won’t happen again.
However, even if the call had not been returned - the ‘comedian’ initiated the call while impersonating a US senator - for the purpose of gaining access to the president and talking policy.
I’m not an attorney, but the man could possibly be charged with a felony and face prison time and/or fined.
The easiest way to prevent these is to have the phone number, and call them back.
Thank you. I was searching to see if it might be charged under wire fraud, and this looks similar to what I found regarding that.
Oh yeah, the thing of value would be information about the conversation he used for commercial gain (hits).
Welcome.
A good prosecuting attorney (I’m not one) could probably gin up another few charges. That one I cited is just the low hanging fruit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.