Academy Award-winning actor George Clooney called one of President Joe Biden’s top aides last month to express concerns about the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) actions against Israeli leaders—a case his wife, Amal Clooney, worked on, the Wall Street Journal report on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the conversation.
According to the report, Clooney contacted Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, to address Biden’s denunciation of arrest warrants sought by ICC prosecutors for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, particularly Biden's use of the word “outrageous.” The prosecutors also sought warrants for top Hamas leaders.
The actor was also troubled by the administration’s initial openness to imposing sanctions on the ICC because his wife might be subject to these penalties, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Clooney’s call came just weeks before he is set to appear at a June 15 fundraiser for Biden’s reelection campaign in Los Angeles. His concerns reverberated throughout Biden’s circle, leading some officials to worry that the high-profile actor might withdraw from the prominent fundraiser, which will also feature former President Barack Obama, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, and actress Julia Roberts.
For weeks, Biden’s reelection campaign has been running a fundraising contest for supporters to win an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles to meet Obama, Clooney, and Roberts at the event. Clooney still plans to attend the fundraiser, the sources said.
The Biden campaign disputed the notion that there were serious worries about Clooney dropping out of the fundraiser. Clooney, through a representative, declined to comment, as did the White House.
Clooney has long supported Democratic candidates and causes. In 2020, he donated more than $500,000 to Biden’s campaign effort and co-hosted a virtual fundraiser for him that raised $7 million.
Last month, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that he has requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, the head of the terror group's military wing Mohammed Deif and the leader of its political bureau Ismail Haniyeh on charges of war crimes.
After Khan made the announcement, Amal Clooney, an international human rights lawyer, revealed in a statement that the prosecutor’s office had enlisted her to assist with the investigation. She was tasked with reviewing evidence of suspected war crimes and providing legal analysis. The statement, released by the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a human rights organization she co-founded with her husband, noted that the team’s legal findings were “unanimous.”
“I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law,” Amal Clooney wrote. “So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine.”