Amal Clooney, wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, could be barred from reentering the United States over her aiding the International Criminal Court in issuing arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders.
Under a Feb. 6 executive order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the authority to deny entry to anyone who has assisted the ICC in its prosecutorial work against Israeli officials.
In issuing the order, President Trump said the ICC abused its authority in issuing the arrest warrants and has put military lives at risk by targeting the U.S. and Israel.
His executive order directs the administration to scrutinize any action by the ICC to target or prosecute an American or a U.S. ally. It names only one person — ICC prosecutor Karim Khan — to be subject to property loss and visa denial, but its sanctions can be applied to anyone who has aided the ICC prosecutions.
Ms. Clooney, a British-Lebanese international human rights lawyer, has not become a U.S. citizen since marrying Mr. Clooney in 2014. She shares a home in Italy with her husband and their two children. They also have properties in California and New York.
Legal experts say the wording of Mr. Trump’s order is sufficiently broad to allow the administration to single out Ms. Clooney.
“He might just do that,” Jeffrey Swartz, a professor at Cooley Law School, said of the president. “Sending a message to others: ‘This is what I am willing to do.’ It could happen.”
Ms. Clooney played an “instrumental role” in securing arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as part of a panel of legal experts that evaluated evidence of alleged war crimes between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to the New York Post.
The ICC review focused on actions taken by Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish state by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in which more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 others were taken hostage. The panel voted to issue arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and Hamas.
The Washington Times could not independently determine Ms. Clooney’s immigration status. She could be in the U.S. with a green card or on a visa, according to legal experts.
If she were to leave the U.S., officials at an overseas airport could deny her reentry to a flight back to America, under the executive order.
“She is not an American citizen, as I recall,” Mr. Swartz said. “If she is holding a green card, she is supposed to have due process before they can take that card away.”
If she is on a visa, she could swiftly be rejected from returning to the U.S.
“They actually will hold her, hold a very quick … hearing and say, ‘You don’t have a visa — you are not an American citizen, you don’t have a green card. You have no basis to claim political asylum, and you’re out of here,” Mr. Swartz said, if she only has a visa status.
Lenni Benson, a professor at New York Law School, said if Ms. Clooney is targeted, she would have some legal defenses, such as her protected speech under the First Amendment and that she is acting as an attorney with due process rights.
“If our government were to do that to Ms. Clooney, she would have many arguments,” Ms. Benson said.
A spokesperson for the Clooneys’ foundation and the actor’s representative agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the White House and Mr. Rubio’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Eric Iverson, a U.S. citizen who is a prosecutor at the ICC, filed a lawsuit contesting the president’s order, arguing that it is interfering with his work to investigate war crimes.
Mr. Iverson argues the order is sweeping and violates First Amendment rights.
“He has waited for several months for the Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) to issue regulations that narrow the needlessly broad sweep of the executive order, or to grant a license that would enable him to resume his investigation of crimes committed in Darfur. No regulations or license have been forthcoming,” his lawyers said in the lawsuit.
It was filed May 5 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The case is Iverson v. Donald J. Trump.
