J.D. Vance's flippant question highlighted 'problem' with Trump-Putin calls: analyst

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) may have inadvertently highlighted significant questions swirling around former President Donald Trump's reported phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Washington Post analyst.

According to journalist Bob Woodward, Trump has had as many as seven phone calls with Putin since leaving office in 2021. The former U.S. president went so far as to reportedly provide COVID-19 tests to Putin.

Vance was asked about Woodward's reporting on Tuesday, specifically whether he and the former president chatted about what the calls entailed.

"I — I — I honestly didn't know that Bob Woodward was still alive until you asked me that question," he quipped. "What little I know about Bob Woodward is that he is — I'm going to use a word here — he is a hack. The guy's a hack."

Vance added that he's "never" had such a conversation with Trump.

Even so, he asked: "Even if it's true. “Is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy?”

Analyst Aaron Blake noted Wednesday there are "valid questions" raised by the reporting, particularly given Trump's "cozy" relationship with Putin. Among them: "Why the continued cloak-and-dagger on Trump’s talks with Putin? Did any such conversations continue after Russia invaded a U.S. ally, Ukraine, in February 2022, and pertain to that?"

Blake said the "significance of nearly all of those questions was quickly made clear, however unintentionally," by Vance.

For starters, it could be unlawful for a former elected official to engage in "shadowy diplomacy," he said.

"And none other than Trump himself has said as much, at least when it involved a Democrat. Trump not only pushed for but also apparently succeeded in getting a political opponent, former secretary of state John Kerry, investigated for alleged 'shadow diplomacy,'" wrote Blake.

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He later added that the Kerry matter "was one of the most significant examples of Trump’s apparently weaponizing the government against his foes — something he has suggested he would do even more if he’s elected to a second term."

Former U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman has written in his book that the Justice Department under Trump referred the Kerry case to prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors declined to press charges against Kerry.

The Trump campaign has flatly denied Woodward's reporting. But Vance's own acknowledgment that Trump may have engaged in "diplomacy" could be unlawful under the Logan Act, a federal law that has never been successfully prosecuted, said Blake.