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.
This is about pretending to be an officer of the US and getting something because of the office, not pretending to be someone who happens to be an officer of the US and acting in their private capacity. Impersonating a police officer and telling people it’s illegal to vote is a special crime, impersonating Joe, who happens to work as a police officer, and telling his Facebook friends it’s a waste of time to vote is not.
This is about pretending to be an officer of the US and getting something because of the office, not pretending to be someone who happens to be an officer of the US and acting in their private capacity. Impersonating a police officer and telling people it’s illegal to vote is a special crime, impersonating Joe, who happens to work as a police officer, and telling his Facebook friends it’s a waste of time to vote is not.