George Clooney called White House to defend wife’s work on Israel warrants

The actor was also upset about the administration’s initial openness to imposing sanctions on the ICC because his wife might be subject to the penalties, the people 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 fundraiser for Biden’s reelection campaign June 15 in Los Angeles. His concerns spread throughout Biden’s orbit, leaving some officials to worry that the high-profile actor would withdraw from participating in the marquee 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 people 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.

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced on May 20 that he was seeking to charge Netanyahu, Gallant, Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar and two other top Hamas leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

After Khan made the announcement, Amal Clooney, an international human rights lawyer, said in a statement that the prosecutor’s office had enlisted her to help with the investigation, asking her to review evidence of suspected war crimes and provide legal analysis. The statement, which was published by the Clooney Foundation for Justice, a human rights organization she started with her husband, said 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 in a statement. “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.”

But Biden, along with other top Democratic and Republican leaders, criticized the move, saying it suggested a false symmetry between Israel, a country responding to a brutal terrorist attack, and Hamas, whose goal is the eradication of Israel. His administration initially signaled a willingness to work with Congress to punish the ICC, including the possibility of imposing sanctions on the organization.

“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” Biden said in a statement. “And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

The White House later said sanctions against the ICC were “not the right answer,” while also saying it would work with Congress on other avenues to address the ICC’s “overreach.”

Administration officials played down the notion that they had considered sanctions. “Our position has been consistent and, as always, based on the best interests of the United States and no other factor,” Eduardo Maia Silva, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the House passed legislation that would impose sanctions on the ICC. The Biden administration said in a statement it “strongly opposes” the measure because it “could require sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and U.S. allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court in a range of aspects of its work.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who invited Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, criticized Biden and other Democrats for opposing the sanctions.

“It’s alarming that the Biden administration continues to undermine Israel and now, 155 House Democrats have voted to give the ICC a free pass to target our allies and undermine U.S. national security interests,” Johnson said.

Biden officials said they are willing to work with Congress on an alternative response, but they have declined to provide details.

The nation and the world have been enmeshed in a fiery debate over how to respond to the military campaign launched by Israel after Hamas militants surged across the Gaza border Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory invasion of Gaza, which it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas, has resulted in more than 36,000 Palestinian deaths and a humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

Throughout the war, Biden has staunchly supported Israel, emphasizing its right to defend itself and continuing to provide military aid for its campaign.

The president has become increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s government, especially for not allowing more aid into Gaza and for an airstrike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in April. But his broader support, and his reluctance to impose conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel, has sharply divided the Democratic Party, threatening the fragile coalition that helped elect him in 2020.

Democrats fear young voters and communities of color, in particular, may not support the president at similar levels as they did four years ago, when Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump.

In recent days, Biden has pushed Israel and Hamas to strike a deal that would release many of the remaining hostages and provide a pathway to a permanent end to the war.

The Biden campaign’s Los Angeles fundraiser with Obama and Clooney follows an April event where Biden appeared with Obama and former president Bill Clinton in New York City. The campaign said it had raised more than $26 million from the event, touting it as the most successful single fundraising event for a Democratic candidate in history.

At the end of April, Biden still held a financial advantage over Trump, with his fundraising entities reporting $146 million in cash on hand compared with Trump and the Republican Party’s $88 million.

But Trump outraised Biden in April, and he has seen a cash windfall since a Manhattan jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial. The Trump campaign said it raised $53 million online in the 24 hours after the verdict.

In 2023, Biden appointed Clooney to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which advises the president on cultural policy. Clooney visited the White House in December 2022 when he received the Kennedy Center Honors.

At that event, Biden made a joking reference to Clooney’s spouse, as he often does when introducing prominent men in public settings.

“We see Amal Clooney’s husband,” Biden said, adding, “George is one of the most celebrated actors, directors, producers and screenwriters of our time.”