Amal Clooney could be barred from entering US by President Donald Trump

Human rights barrister Amal Clooney, who could be barred from entering the US, and her husband George Clooney. Photo / Getty Images

Amal Clooney could be barred from entering the US by Donald Trump, according to reports.

The British human rights barrister, who is married to actor George Clooney, could be sanctioned by the US President after a panel she sat on recommended an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on war crimes charges in Gaza.

Lawyers involved in the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to issue the warrant, including Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws and Lord Justice Adrian Fulford, have been warned by the British Foreign Office they could be barred from the US, the Financial Times reports.

It is currently unclear whether Clooney has been cautioned, but she was a member of the panel that recommended prosecutor Karim Khan issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, then Israel’s defence minister.

In February, Trump used an executive order to sanction Khan, banning him and his family from the country and seizing his US assets, and warned further measures could follow against “those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions”.

He claimed the court had “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”.

The executive order threatened “tangible and significant consequences” against others involved in the decision, which include freezing their property and blocking their entry into the US.

The Clooneys are said to spend most of their time in France and have homes in London and Italy, although they are currently in New York while George Clooney stars in the Broadway show Goodnight and Good Luck.

Trump’s order set a 60-day deadline, which fell on April 7, for internal recommendations about other figures who should be sanctioned alongside Khan. So far, further sanctions have not been publicly announced.

Unanimous recommendations

Khan had asked his panel of legal experts to review the evidence against Netanyahu and Gallant before issuing the warrants, and Clooney said last year it was unanimous in its recommendations.

She claimed there were “reasonable grounds to believe” the pair had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination”.

“The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asked me to assist him with evaluating evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza,” she wrote on the Clooney Foundation for Justice website.

“I served on this panel because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives. The law that protects civilians in war was developed more than 100 years ago and it applies in every country in the world regardless of the reasons for a conflict.”

Netanyahu has criticised the arrest warrant, claiming it created a “twisted and false moral equivalence between the leaders of Israel and the henchmen of Hamas”.

The court also charged three leaders of Hamas, the proscribed terrorist group, who have since been killed.

George Clooney is a long-time Democrat supporter who took a prominent role in last year’s election campaign, appearing at fundraisers alongside Joe Biden, the former US President, before publicly urging him to drop out of the race.

In a 60 Minutes appearance in March, he criticised Trump for attacking press freedom, provoking an angry response from the President.

Clooney was a “second-rate movie star” and “failed political pundit”, Trump said, calling the interview a “puff piece”.

“He fought hard for Sleepy Joe’s election and then, right after the debate, dumped him like a dog. Later, I assume under orders from the Obama camp, pushed all out for ‘Kamala [Harris]’, only to soon realise that that was not going to work out too well,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.

Amal Clooney has been approached for comment via her chambers and the Clooney Foundation for Justice.