The Trump administration is reportedly trying to strongarm the International Criminal Court (ICC) into changing its founding document to carve out an exception for President Donald Trump and his top officials ensuring that they are never prosecuted by the court for potential war crimes.
The administration is threatening the ICC with yet more sanctions if they do not amend the Rome Statute, which established the court in 2002, to ensure Trump and his administration’s top officials are never prosecuted, Reuters reports, citing a Trump administration official.
U.S. officials are also demanding that the ICC drop its investigations into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over charges related to Gaza, as well as a probe into potential war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
These demands have been made known to the court by the U.S. government, Reuters reports.
“There is growing concern … that in 2029 the ICC will turn its attention to the president, to the vice president, to the secretary of war and others, and pursue prosecutions against them,” the Trump administration official told Reuters. “That is unacceptable, and we will not allow it to happen.”
Oh so now the ICC is on the table, and a legitimate enough threat to be considered worthy of notice.
If I recall we have legislation that was designed around preventing any American soldier from being prosecuted by something like the ICC, I don’t know how far up the chain that could be applied however.
Rather interesting given that I’m not familiar with any ongoing effort to even look into charges, at the least it does demonstrate a certain understanding of the weight of orders given. At the very least, it gives more strength to domestic opposition in whatever discovery is done by the Senate or House in the future.