Donald Trump may not be the only one in his administration held to account if the International Criminal Court in The Hague decides to take up accusations against the American president.
In a column for the Wall Street Journal, conservative George Mason University Scalia Law School professor Eugene Kontorovich suggested Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth might want to be careful when they travel abroad after they leave their jobs.
According to Kontorovich, it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that Trump may face charges over his authorization to kill alleged “narco-terrorists” in international waters, saying there is an “avenue” for the ICC to follow.
The professor pointed out that Ken Roth, a former head of Human Rights Watch, endorsed ICC intervention, saying, “Trump just did what the International Criminal Court has charged former Philippines Pres. Duterte with doing—ordering the summary execution of alleged drug traffickers.”
Kontorovich suggested it might not be so easy to arrest Trump if he goes overseas, but he said Rubio and Hegseth might be fair game.
Writing, in the case of Trump, “the goal would be to harass him and cast a shadow on his legacy, delegitimizing the people and ideas behind MAGA,” he added, “Rather, the court would wait for a favorable administration in Washington and then open an investigation into Trump policies.”
“This itself would have a chilling effect on foreign travel by Mr. Trump and his former senior officials. The court could then use secret sealed warrants to try to ambush former officials, like Marco Rubio or Pete Hegseth, on travels to Paris, London or Tokyo,” he predicted before adding that a Democratic president, “would likely issue diplomatic objections but nothing more.”
Kontorovich warned, “The Duterte case mentioned by Mr. Roth is a cautionary tale for Mr. Trump. Rodrigo Duterte was a democratically elected president who waged a public, and successful, campaign to wipe out his country’s violent drug gangs. Although this bears no similarity to the atrocity crimes the ICC was created to deal with, the court charged him with crimes against humanity.”
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