Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

The court’s pre-trial judges assessed there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children”.

The judges considered issuing secret warrants but decided that making them public could “contribute to the prevention of the further commission of crimes”.

Moscow has said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Did the ICC issue an arrest for Bush for Iraq?

What is the international criminal court arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for?
The court has issued arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, in relation to the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, where many have been adopted by Russian families.

Forced deportation of populations is recognised as a crime under the Rome statute that established the court. Russia was a signatory to the Rome statute, but withdrew in 2016, saying it did not recognise the jurisdiction of the court.

Although Ukraine is itself not a signatory to the court in The Hague, it granted the ICC jurisdiction to investigate war crimes committed on its territory.

Four visits by the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, over the past year have led to a ruling that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the child abductions.

What does that mean in reality?
Because Russia does not recognise the court and does not extradite its citizens, it is highly unlikely that Putin or Lvova-Belova will be surrendered to the court’s jurisdiction any time soon.

But the issuing of the warrant remains a highly significant moment for a number of reasons. It sends a signal to senior Russian officials – military and civilian – who may be vulnerable to prosecution either now or in the future and would further limit their ability to travel internationally, including to attend international forums.

Don’t serving heads of government enjoy immunity?
While the ICC does not recognise immunity for heads of state in cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, in an important precedent, South Africa declined to enforce an ICC warrant for the arrest of the Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir during a visit in 2015.

Pretoria argued that it saw “no duty under international law and the Rome statute to arrest a serving head of state of a [ICC] non-state-party such as Omar al-Bashir”, and several other countries that he visited also declined to arrest him.

The arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998 on an international warrant issued by the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón illustrates the difficulties involved in such immunity issues.

Pinochet claimed immunity as a former head of state – a claim rejected by the British courts – but ultimately, the British home secretary, Jack Straw, allowed Pinochet to return home on grounds of ill health.

So what is the point of this?
While Putin seems secure in his power now and safe from extradition, a future Kremlin leader may decide it is more politic to send him to The Hague than to protect him.

A good example is Slobodan Milošević, the former president of Yugoslavia, who was indicted on a series of war crimes charges by the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the midst of the war in Kosovo in 1999.

In 2001, amid a struggle between key opposing figures in Serbia after Milošević’s fall from power, the prime minister, Zoran Djindjić, ignored a court ruling banning the extradition and ordered the transfer of Milošević to The Hague, saying: “Any other solution except cooperation [with The Hague] would lead the country to disaster.”

Milošević’s arrest – preceding his transfer – followed pressure on the Yugoslav government to detain the former president or risk losing substantial US economic aid and loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Are other warrants likely to follow?
The judge added that the prosecutor could form cases of new allegations against Putin, thus expanding the warrants.

Human Rights Watch described the decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin as a “wake-up call to others committing abuses or covering them up”.

Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at the NGO, said: “With these arrest warrants, the ICC has made Putin a wanted man and taken its first step to end the impunity that has emboldened perpetrators in Russia’s war against Ukraine for far too long.”

A Federalist Society for all things: Dark money enters the culture wars
Donald Trump's so-called Supreme Court whisperer wants to expand his success to other parts of American society

One of the most successful right-wing organizers in this country's history, Leonard Leo, is now out to "crush liberal dominance and wokeism" across a broad range of American cultural, journalistic, and political life.

Leo, the longtime godfather of the Federalist Society, has a history of crushing liberal influence. He helped to transform the Supreme Court from its generally middle-of-the-road past into a hard-right hammer bent on bludgeoning the law back into what the Federalist Society considers its proper roots. He helped to arrange the appointments of right-wing theocrats to federal judgeships across the country. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, from Amarillo, Texas, who just held a hearing on a lawsuit to ban the abortion drug mifepristone, is a Trump appointee and one of Leo's, and the Federalist Society's, most prominent success stories. Now, having wrapped the federal judicial system in the robes of the Federalist Society, Leo wants to create little outposts of right-wing activists that can, in his words, "roll back" the dominance of liberals in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, New York investment banks, and academia.

Named the Teneo Network, Leo's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization is a little opaque at this point, since Teneo keeps secret nearly everything about itself, including its donors and who its members are. Leo, however, is sitting on a pot of $1.6 billion that was recently donated by a Chicago businessman to a conservative group run by Leo called Donor's Trust. In 2021, Leo turned around and gave $3 million to Teneo, and he made a fundraising video in which he laid out his plan to transform the group into a kind of Federalist Society for all things. According to ProPublica, which got ahold of more than 50 hours of previously-unseen internal videos and confidential documents about Teneo, in the fundraising video, Leo referred to his success with the Federalist Society and plans for Teneo this way: "I just said to myself, 'Well, if this can work for law, why can't it work for lots of other areas of American culture and American life where things are really messed up right now?'"

But Blackman’s assessment of the direction of the intellectual current within the Federalist Society was even more candid than Meyer’s.

“The norm that judges be restrained and moderate — that ship has sailed,” he said. 

And of course, Trump is calling for protests/riots (again) to his own skin.

Anyone want to take a guess which crime he claims he is being arrested for? I lost track which state prosecutor is investigating which crime.

I am probably going to get figuratively pillard, but frankly my dear, I just don't care anymore. What can I say, I am tired of Trump and his doings. He just seems small potatoes now.

Rebelofnj wrote:

And of course, Trump is calling for protests/riots (again) to his own skin.

Anyone want to take a guess which crime he claims he is being arrested for? I lost track which state prosecutor is investigating which crime.

He just reported that he thinks Tuesday is the day he will be arrested for something. Most likely it will be the NY thing...which I consider the least important and most likely to fail item. It may
succeed...and I will be delighted to see it do so. Trump belongs
in a prison cell.

Besides, prison will shut him up! Does his secret service guards go in with him? The best I think we can expect is house arrest!?

Frank Apisa wrote:

Rebelofnj wrote:

And of course, Trump is calling for protests/riots (again) to his own skin.

Anyone want to take a guess which crime he claims he is being arrested for? I lost track which state prosecutor is investigating which crime.

He just reported that he thinks Tuesday is the day he will be arrested for something. Most likely it will be the NY thing...which I consider the least important and most likely to fail item. It may
succeed...and I will be delighted to see it do so. Trump belongs
in a prison cell.

You and I clash about different aspects of the whole ‘justice vs
Trump’ issue, and we also agree on other aspects.

I wonder what you (and others) think about this piece right here - that it looks like the first of any indictments Trump may face is from NY. Which is also the smallest of all the possible cases against him in the sense of comparing financial fraud to tampering with state election results, or conspiring to overthrow a national election, or inspiring armed sedition, or racketeering, or, or, or…
In other words, they’re going to hit him with the weakest possible charge, and the one that can most easily be sidestepped, first.

I think it’s pathetic, and that it plays right into Trump’s hands. He can play it all in the court of public opinion like it’s a joke that “this is all they’ve got” after years and millions of dollars investigating him, If they are successful in convicting him, it will surely be a fine and probation, and he can wear it as a badge of oppression that will boost his election chances. If they fail, they give Trump world proof that it’s all a witch hunt. I don’t see any upside to pursuing the weakest case first.

I think this is more proof of the cowardice, indecision and weakness of our Attorney General. He has delayed any federal action against Trump FAR past the window of when a massive case like this could be opened. The first primary fir 2024 is less than a year away now!
There is no reason on Earth that a State’s AG should be leading the way in pursuing justice on Donald Trump.

Anyway, my 2 cents…

Frankly, I'm more concerned about Trump getting his rapid supporters (shrinking in number but still) in a frenzy, all to put the lives of law enforcement and bystanders at risk.