Donald Trump on Sunday was warned about yet another criminal prosecution that's coming his way.
Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at George Mason University Scalia Law School and a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, over the weekend published a piece called "The Next Prosecution of Donald Trump" in which he claims "plans are under way to try him in the International Criminal Court."
"This time he can strike first," Kontorovich argues.
According to Kontorovich's analysis, the international court will try to "find a jurisdictional hook" in the president's actions.
"Before his second term began, President Trump was prosecuted repeatedly in state court, federal court and the Senate. After it ends, he could face trial in another venue, the International Criminal Court in The Hague," Kontorovich said. "The U.S. didn’t sign the Rome Statute and therefore doesn’t belong to the ICC, but the court can find a jurisdictional hook in actions the administration has taken abroad in ICC member states."
Specifically, Kontorovich says Trump may have opened the door to his future prosecution with the recent attacks on purported smuggling boat operations.
"The strikes on Venezuelan narcoterror smuggling boats provide one possible avenue. Shortly after the U.S. Navy destroyed the first such vessel, Ken Roth, a former head of Human Rights Watch, endorsed ICC intervention. 'Trump just did what the International Criminal Court has charged former Philippines Pres. Duterte with doing—ordering the summary execution of alleged drug traffickers,' Mr. Roth tweeted," the professor wrote. "Venezuela is a Rome Statute party, which in the court’s thinking gives it jurisdiction over U.S. officials and servicemen involved in the attacks. The ICC has already launched an investigation against a nonmember state (Israel) based on a single boarding of a vessel flagged by a member state, so it has all the precedents it needs."
He goes on to offer advice for how Trump can attack the ICC and circumvent the future prosecution.