Amal Clooney might be unable to enter the US soon.
Amal is married to Academy Award-winning actor George Clooney
The couple got married in 2014 and now share seven-year-old twins Ella and Alexander.
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Amal Clooney is more than just George Clooney’s wife
Amal’s originally from Lebanon but grew up in the UK. But besides being the wife of a superstar husband, Amal is a well-known figure and is one of the leading human rights lawyers in the world.
She has represented high-profile political clients
Back in the day, she represented the ex-prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko. Also Mohamed Nasheed, who used to be the president of the Maldives.
Amal’s reported involvement with the ICC could be the reason
Word is, lately she’s been working with the International Criminal Court in the Israel and Gaza case.
British lawyers have been warned about US sanctions
The Financial Times ran a piece recently saying that British lawyers have been getting warnings about possible U.S. sanctions.
These warnings have reportedly been sent from Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to top lawyers involved in the ICC’s war crimes case against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump issued a controversial executive order
And all this sort of blew up after Trump signed an executive order back in February. It’s about people helping the ICC go after Netanyahu.
The order basically says the ICC “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”
It continues: “The ICC has, without a legitimate basis, asserted jurisdiction over and opened preliminary investigations concerning personnel of the United States and certain of its allies, including Israel, and has further abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.”
And it keeps going: says the ICC just decided to open investigations even though they don’t have any real right to do that, and that they’ve gone too far by putting out arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
It threatens serious consequences for ICC collaborators
Trump’s order straight-up warns about consequences for people working with the ICC: like freezing assets, blocking property, and even banning them (and their families) from entering the U.S.
The Clooneys are currently living in New York
Right now, the Clooneys are in New York. Usually, they stay in France, but they’re in the city because George is doing a Broadway play, Good Night, and Good Luck.
An ICC prosecutor has already been targeted
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan is already on the list of folks the order’s going after.
