{"id":1396,"date":"2026-05-08T10:07:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:07:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:07:58","slug":"immunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/1396","title":{"rendered":"Immunity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Between continued US attacks on civilian ships in the Caribbean<\/a> and our threats against civilian infrastructure<\/a> in Iran, there\u2019s been a lot of talk about what can be done to discourage war crimes in a country where laws increasingly just don\u2019t matter. Obviously the current DOJ won’t do anything, but what about a future DOJ<\/a>? Here\u2019s how things stand as I understand it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War crimes are a violation of US law (18 U.S. Code \u00a7 2441<\/a>), punishable by life imprisonment or even death. “Just following orders” doesn’t get you off the hook and there’s no statute of limitations<\/a>, so even if the current DOJ refuses to prosecute a future DOJ might. But the president can pardon<\/a> anyone who commits a war crime (and indeed already has<\/a>), though he can\u2019t pardon a crime before it is committed. So if you’re willing to stake your life on the belief that Trump will issue blanket pardons at the end of his term<\/a> then prosecution isn’t a threat. (The president probably<\/a> can’t pardon himself, but the Supreme Court’s recent ruling gives him presumption of immunity<\/a> for all official acts.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War crimes are also a violation of international law<\/a>, with crimes tried in The Hague by the International Criminal Court<\/a>. An American that found themselves before the ICC would not be protected by a presidential pardon, and the administration is worried enough that they’re pressuring<\/a> the ICC to give Trump and other high-ranking officials immunity after they leave office. But the US isn\u2019t a signatory of the ICC<\/a>, and US law prohibits<\/a> extraditing to the Hague or assisting in trials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So legally it looks like checkmate. If you believe Trump will grant you a pardon (which seems like a big if<\/em> to me, but whatever) then it looks like you can get away free and clear. Except… that’s assuming a new administration plays by the rules. The biggest lesson of the past few years is that laws are more fluid than we imagined, and with the right combination of finesse and pressure they can be coerced to take on a new shape. Men who deny that laws have meaning should be wary of relying on those same laws to keep their freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between continued US attacks on civilian ships in the Caribbean and our threats against civilian infrastructure in Iran, there\u2019s been a lot of talk about what can be done to discourage war crimes in a country where laws increasingly just don\u2019t matter. Obviously the current DOJ won’t do anything, but what about a future DOJ? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}