Pompeo’s Personal Stake in the International Criminal Court’s Afghan Investigation (with Randle DeFalco)

Abstract:

It is no secret that the Trump administration, in general, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, specifically, are hostile toward the International Criminal Court (ICC), particularly as it relates to the ICC’s investigation into potential U.S. abuses in Afghanistan since 2003. The Obama administration also resisted the Court’s veering toward this investigation. Yet the Trump administration, with Pompeo taking the lead, has made it personal by targeting specific members of the Court, and the Secretary of State has recently said he will escalate actions against the Court to prevent it from pursuing the criminal investigation. What has gone generally unnoticed is that Pompeo may be personally at risk for wrongdoing that the Court could uncover of CIA activities when he was the director of the agency.