Suzanne Downing: Sen. Wielechowski’s Korean lunch deserves Logan Act scrutiny

By SUZANNE DOWINNG

Oct. 12, 2026 – Sen. Bill Wielechowski has a verdict on President Donald Trump’s Alaska LNG announcement: “nothing.”

That is an awfully sweeping conclusion to bring home from lunch with some Korean diplomats.

Wielechowski says Korean representatives told legislators that South Korea has not decided to invest in Alaska LNG. According to his account, participation would depend on a final investment decision and commercial reasonableness.

Fine. Now tell Alaskans about the rest of the conversation.

Who arranged the meeting? Which legislators attended? What was the agenda? Most importantly, what did Alaska’s elected officials say to the Korean representatives? Did they discourage investment?

There is a substantial difference between asking a prospective investor to explain its position and urging that investor to abandon a project the federal government is working to advance.

While we can’t say for certain that anyone crossed that line, Wielechowski has repeatedly tried to kill the gasline project, and he has now made the lunch part of the public debate. Alaskans deserve to know what he said to South Korea on behalf of our state.

An announced investment initiative is not completed financing, and never has been characterized that way. Korean officials publicly expressed conditions about commercial viability and domestic approval before this lunch with Wielechowski.

And their conditional participation isn’t  “nothing.” Major projects move through negotiations, commercial reviews, agreements and financing decisions. The question is whether Alaska’s officials are helping resolve those conditions or encouraging potential partners to give up.

Did the legislators discuss proposed taxes or other conditions on Alaska LNG? Did they explain their positions as individual lawmakers, or suggest they were speaking for Alaska? Did anyone recommend that Korea withhold participation?

The questions I”m raising concern a legal boundary.

The Logan Act, 18 U.S.C. § 953, addresses certain unauthorized communications by American citizens with foreign governments or their officials. It requires a particular intent: influencing a foreign government concerning a dispute or controversy with the United States, or defeating measures of the United States. Violating the Logan Act is a felony.

If an unauthorized participant deliberately urged a foreign government to thwart an identifiable federal initiative, that could warrant examination under this statute. Whether this project and any actual communications fit its requirements would depend on the facts.

Anyone tempted to dismiss the law as a dead letter should simply read the Justice Department’s own analysis.

On Dec. 18, 2020, during Trump’s first administration, DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the Logan Act was constitutional when enacted and remains valid and enforceable unless Congress repeals it. That is an executive-branch legal opinion, not a judicial ruling resolving every constitutional objection or a prediction of prosecution. DOJ does not regard the statute as imaginary.

FARA raises a different question: The Foreign Agents Registration Act concerns covered activities undertaken as an agent of a foreign principal. Payment is not a necessary element. An agency relationship and covered conduct are; applicable exemptions also matter.

If there were an arrangement to undertake political messaging or policy advocacy at a foreign principal’s request or direction, the conversation waded into legal quicksand.

On Sept. 16, DOJ issued a public reminder about potential civil and criminal consequences for unregistered foreign agents.

Wielechowski and his allies may scrutinize Alaska LNG, but they better not have interfered with a federal negotiation. If anyone at that luncheon tried to defeat a federal initiative through unauthorized dealings with a foreign government, the consequences should be swift — and severe.

I say, put Sen. Wielechowski under oath. Today.

Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.

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