George Clooney Called Biden Admin To Complain About How His Wife's Work Was Dismissed
Amal Clooney worked on the International Criminal Court’s action against Israeli leaders, that the Biden Administration dismissed as "outrageous" and with no standing.
George Clooney has strong feelings, and knows enough influential leaders to let them know all about it.
After the International Criminal Court equated Israeli leaders with Hamas terror bosses and sought arrest warrants for a combined five of them, the current administration, led by President Joe Biden himself, denounced them. Biden called them “outrageous” and said “We do not recognize the ICC.”
Amal Clooney, the Lebanese lawyer wife of Hollywood icon George Clooney, has long worked on pro-Palestinian committees investigating alleged war crimes in the Israel-Gaza war, namely those claimed to be committed by Israel. On 11 August 2014, during a major flare up in tensions between Hamas and Israel following the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, Clooney was named to a committee established by the UNHRC to investigate alleged war crimes during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.
She has been copping flack from pro-Hamas protesters on her silence following the October 7 Hamas attacks and subsequent war, but after the ICC warrants were announced, apparently leaked she was involved in their creation to win back credibility with that constituency, and news of her role made headlines around the war.
After strong pushback from the White House and news that Congress was considering legislation to condemn the ICC, it has been revealed that George Clooney called Steve Ricchetti, whose official title is Counselor to the President but is known to be deeply enmeshed in Biden’s vaunted inner circle, to complain about it.
According to the Washington Post, who broke the news, Clooney was offended by the administration’s denunciation of the warrants, and was upset by Biden’s use of the word outrageous to describe them. He was also worried by Biden’s initial willingness to consider imposing sanctions on the ICC, and concerned his wife would be impacted by them. (The legislation has passed the Republican-led House, but will not be bought up in the Senate after the White House waffled and asked Democrats to vote against it.)
Clooney has the ear of the Biden White House. A leader in the entertainment industry and a reliable Democrat backer, who donated $500,000 to Biden’s campaign in 2020, Clooney is scheduled to attend a star-studded fundraiser for Biden on June 15. Following his objections to how the President attacked his wife’s work, some campaign officials were concerns Clooney would drop out of the marquee event in Los Angeles, which is also expected to include former president Barack Obama, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actor Julia Roberts. For weeks, the campaign also had been running a contest for supporters to win an all-expenses-paid trip to Los Angeles to meet Obama, Clooney and Roberts at the event. But apparently Clooney is still scheduled to appear, despite his personal misgivings.
Perhaps celebrity culture has gone too far when a celebrity can call a powerful White House official to express his personal concerns about serious international policy and foreign affairs. Some food for thought….