Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wrote to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday, demanding “full transparency” on a sexual conduct claim against prosecutor Karim Khan.
Khan is seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for daring to fight back against Hamas terror. (He was also seeking warrants for the leaders of Hamas, who have all been killed in the war that they started.)
As Breitbart News reported, however, Khan faces an accusation of his own — namely, of inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.
Graham wrote:
In the weeks before Prosecutor Khan applied for warrants, I worked with a bipartisan group of United States Senators to urge Prosecutor Khan to adhere to the Rome Statute in conducting his investigation. Specifically, on a May 1, 2024 phone call, this bipartisan group urged Prosecutor Khan to respect the principle of complementarity and to engage in good faith with Israeli officials before making any decision as to how to move forward against the State of Israel.
…
On May 20, 2024, Prosecutor Khan abruptly canceled a planned trip to Israel to meet with Israeli officials regarding allegations in Gaza and instead publicly announced his application for arrest warrants against the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Israel.2 This decision took the United States Senate by surprise, and was inconsistent with the Prosecutor’s legal obligations. It has now come to my attention through media reports that Prosecutor Khan was facing allegations of misconduct around the same time, and the resolution of this matter remains a mystery. The abrupt decision to cancel this visit to Israel, along with these contemporaneous allegations needs to be explained, and I request full transparency on the matter to ensure there is no conflict of interest. These media reports are disturbing, and I call for a release of the records pertaining to these allegations, including any decision not to open an investigation, and for an update on where this matter stands. Until such transparency is satisfactorily achieved, another cloud—a moral one—hangs over Prosecutor Khan’s abrupt decision to abandon engagement with Israel and seek arrest warrants.
The formal effort to obtain warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant is expected to begin soon. Netanyahu called Khan’s accusations “blood libels,” and rejected Khan’s effort to put Israel and Hamas on the same moral plane.
Then-President Donald Trump placed sanctions on individual members of the ICC, preventing them from entering the U.S., lest they take action against American soldiers and U.S. allies. President Joe Biden revoked those sanctions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.