Amal Clooney has been married to George Clooney, an American citizen, for eleven years. In all that time, she apparently never sought American citizenship. She has retained her British citizenship, and the Clooneys live in their homes around the world – George’s bachelor pad in LA, a place in NYC (where they are now, as George works on Broadway), a country home in England, a home in Como, Italy. Oh, and they bought a home in France too. Well, there are reports circulating that Amal might soon be banned from entering the US or working at the United Nations.
Several top British lawyers, including Amal Clooney, have reportedly been warned about receiving sanctions from President Donald Trump that could affect their ability to enter the United States.
The Financial Times reported last week that the U.K. Foreign Office has cautioned several high-level barristers about the Trump administration leveling sanctions due to the legal advice they provided to the International Criminal Court in a war crimes case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In February, Trump issued Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court,” which named British lawyer and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan in its annex — the first barrister to face U.S. sanctions for advising in this case.
If sanctions against more U.K. lawyers are, in fact, handed down, Amal, 47 — who holds British citizenship — might be prevented from entering the U.S., where she owns a property with husband George Clooney.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1978, Amal and her family emigrated to the United Kingdom two years later to escape the Lebanese Civil War. She was raised in Buckinghamshire before studying at Oxford and NYU. She is qualified to practice law in the United States — after being admitted to the New York bar in 2002 — as well as England and Wales.
She and Clooney married in September 2014, and share 7-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander. PEOPLE has reached out to the U.K. Foreign Office, as well as representatives for Amal and her legal chambers, for more information about possible sanctions. A rep for George declined to comment on the Financial Times’ report.
Last year, there were reports that one of the big reasons why George Clooney did his “civic duty” by writing that horrid NY Times column about Joe Biden was because Biden refused to take his calls regarding Amal’s work for the ICC. As in, the Biden administration criticized the ICC, specifically regarding the case Amal had advised on, and George got mad and tried to complain to President Biden. After that there was a series of unfortunate events leading to Donald Trump’s reelection, and Amal Clooney’s potential ban from the United States. But Biden’s age, amirite? Granted, the Clooneys will be fine no matter what. Their money insulates them and Amal will obviously still be able to enjoy the Clooney properties in England, France and Italy.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
-
- 81st Venice International Film Festival ‘Wolfs’ premiere Featuring: Amal Clooney, George Clooney Where: Venice, Italy When: 01 Sep 2024 Credit: IPA/INSTARimages **UK, USA AND AUSTRALIA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- 81st Venice International Film Festival – Celebrity Sightings – Day 5 Featuring: Amal Clooney and George Clooney Where: Venice, Italy When: 01 Sep 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- 81st Venice International Film Festival – ‘Wolfs’ Premiere Featuring: Amal Clooney, George Clooney Where: Venice, Italy When: 01 Sep 2024 Credit: KIKA Press/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN ITALY**
-
- 81st Venice International Film Festival – ‘Wolfs’ Premiere Featuring: Amal Clooney, George Clooney Where: Venice, Italy When: 01 Sep 2024 Credit: KIKA Press/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN ITALY**
-
- 2024 The Albies Hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice at the New York Public Library Featuring: Amal Clooney and George Clooney Where: New York, New York, United States When: 26 Sep 2024 Credit: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages
-
- 2024 The Albies Hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice at the New York Public Library Featuring: George Clooney and Amal Clooney Where: New York city, New York, United States When: 26 Sep 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
She can always Zoom in but I’d keep her and her children away during the Trump years.
Right? I’m horrified at so many things right now, but honestly I don’t understand why anyone who could easily live outside the U.S. would choose to be in the U.S. right now.
George is working on Broadway and the family wants to stay together. Sanctioning human rights defenders is another step toward autocracy.
Write stupid editorials and win your wife being banned. Well George your little temper tantrum is causing you some discomfort and to you I say couldn’t happen to a bigger jerk than you. Suck it George.
Don’t blame George. Blame a government that would actively seek to harass and persecute attorneys who work with the International Criminal Court. Who would have thought the US would one day be run by a regime that is opposed to the good work of the ICC? Who does this ultimately help? Putin and Bibi.
I will blame George because he did his best to get Biden to step down. He isn’t blameless in this!
George’s tone deaf editorial is moot at this point and had nothing to do with Amal being sanctioned by the US. She is being sanctioned for being a human rights defender by a corrupt government that doesn’t believe in human rights.
good enough reason for her to avoid coming to the USA as long as Orange Man is in power. it’s not worth her trouble, nor the kids’.
Some may disagree with me BUT-As much as I appreciated Biden as POTUS, he needed to step aside. even his own aides now admit that he had become so enfeebled that he wasn’t up to the job for another 4 years. and I don’t think any of them would have given him the push. George took one for the team.
Joe is not enfeebled. He knew what he was doing. What we have now is enfeebled. Let’s leave Joe and all the good and service he has done for this country alone.
Im not from the US, but heard he only needed to win the election and even if he couldn’t make it for 4 years, kamala wouldve stepped in as 1st black woman to be potus. They couldn’t see him win in the end. Too bad the US is now what it is. No one envies what you’re going through. Good luck to the world for the next 4 years. My little hope for canada’s future lies in Mark Carney
@StillDouchesOfCambridge: It’s not that “They couldn’t see him win in the end”. It’s that they feared that Joe Biden WOULD win and that increased the possibility that Kamala Harris would indeed become the first woman President – and a Black one at that (shock, horror, clutch pearls!) either because Joe may have stepped aside after a couple of years, or made her position as his successor even stronger after two terms and the racists (Republicans AND Democrats) definitely did not want another Black president and the misogynists definitely did not want a woman as president.
They collectively decided that they would prefer to have Trump, so that’s what they got. The Democrats were hoping to elbow the Vice President aside and install their choice of pasty cookie cutter male. The poverty-stricken republicans wanted Trump to hurt “those others”, especially uppity black and brown people. The media wanted to increase their ratings and paper billionaires wanted to grift.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Stupidity is a human condition that hits most of us at one point or another therefore work around it instead of unaliving fools.
This decision is intimidation on an international for doing legitimate work.
I wonder what the consequence are for pursuing a particular national citizenship why some people choose not to pursue it.
Congratulations George, your ratf*cking helped get us here.
Did it, though?
George isn’t influential enough to have made a difference. All he did was recognize facts, Biden was not prepared for the battle.
The biggest betrayal I felt during the whole election process (other than the election results, of course ) was when Joe Biden couldn’t defend reproductive rights during his debate with Trump.
It’s wild to me that people think Trump winning is George’s fault. As Democrats, we should be able to say when the emperor has no clothes. The Republicans won’t do it for Trump. My only wish is that Biden would’ve recognized his inability earlier, so Kamala would’ve had a better chance to make her case.
The people I blame for Trump’s election are the people that voted for him, and the people that sat out.
Way to go, George!!
She’s stunning. That’s all I got.
I think she’s stunning too—and that she looks a lot like him.
Did you think her beautiful before the massive weightloss and nose job?
But Joe’s AGGGGGGE!!
Mr moral obligation my butt. What a joke.
I’m possibly really pushing the boundaries of outing myself here! But lol anyway, I don’t really care, I have something to say on this and I *know* on an expert level what I’m talking about ; )
Amal serves as a special advisor to the ICC Prosecutor (Khan) and she was a part of this ad hoc outside “expert” legal committee that Khan put together for Israel/Palestine (this outside lawyer advice is a whole other can of worms, btw, that is imo fairly problematic to how the ICC operates, meaning that there is a whole office of ICC-employed lawyers whose job is actually to do what this group did, but I digress…). The quoted article is incredibly inaccurate in important ways about what Amal and this group actually did.
Did they recommend opening an investigation on the basis of reasonable grounds that crimes may have been committed by individuals in Israel’s government? Yes, they did. They ALSO and this is super important found on the basis of reasonable grounds that individuals in leadership positions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad-Palesestine, and other non-state armed groups may have committed a number of international crimes against Israelis, including but not limited to the crime of extermination, torture, murder, and sexual violence.
One of the reasons (of many many reasons) why Trump’s EO is so problematic is because it not only shields Israeli perpetrators of atrocity crimes, but it actually prevents justice for and contributes to atrocity denialism of crimes committed by Hamas. The ICC has jurisdiction over ALL crimes, it doesn’t operate from a one-sided approach, and this is a requirement of the Rome Statute itself. Amal’s work for the Prosecutor addressed crimes by ALL actors.
LadyE, I’ve often wondered what the agreement is between the US and Isreal–which has been in existence for decades. It would be helpful to know what the terms are in order to determine where Biden was coming from.
I don’t believe that if you have a lot of money you are granted access to POTUS. George is just another citizen in my book. Personally, I think that’s what really got George angry. POTUS was supposed to always answer his calls? Do what George told him to do? Do you think Biden maybe, might have, possibly been working on other more immediate US issues?
I am 100% in agreement with everything in your second paragraph! Absolutely no argument from me! Amal’s work is something different to me, regardless of George’s ridiculous behavior. I just see them as two very different things, but I agree with you on George!
TY TY, LadyE–I once knew more about how the ICC operated, but not at this level and my info is dated–very clearly explained and it’s such important info!
Thank you for this explanation, @LadyE. Much appreciated. And good lord, sanctioning lawyers! trump has got to go, NOW, if not sooner.
Off topic – and from the outside, but they seem to have a great marriage.
Her posture is SO bad, I’ve got neck pain just looking at her.
She’s at the very bottom of a very long list of other concerns.
If she is banned, I will not miss her. Serves that Clooney man right for helping ro disrupt our national progress
Normally I’d feel bad, but in this case I’m glad rich shielded dude is feeling some discomfort.
Clooney 2024: Joe is in decline — he should not seek reelection
Clooney 2025: Trump he’s charismatic. There’s no taking that away from him
Clooney would suck his own d*ck if he could.
Dear lort. A white man not being totally protected by his white privilege AND finding out after fucking around with an election he had no business arrogantly f#cking around with? Did not have that on my bingo card this May.
I’m horrified! Amal Clooney is not a criminal, and as far as I know, she and other foreigners who have committed no crimes should not be barred from the United States because Trump dislikes her! It doesn’t matter what George Clooney’s opinion is–this is fundamentally wrong.
This!!
The only response here should be that banning lawyers from entering countries based on the legal work they have done is fascism.
Yes George was dumb to write his editorial but a whole bunch of Americans voted for the orange monster. Kamala was an option.
This is not about Amal specifically but the rule of law. Hungary and Iran go after lawyers. Wake up Americans.
👏👏
They are so wealthy and insulted and have many homes to reside in, is it wrong? Hell yes! Am I still pissed at George? Hell yes! He did finally come out and write some disparaging and long overdue criticisms about f47…I don’t want to misquote but they were seethingly bad (accurate) and maybe that’s why DJT is banishing Amal possibly? You know good old “Retribution Donny 2 Dolls…”
She can have my US citizenship. I’ve been trying to get rid of it.
The UN will need to move their HQ to a democratic country. America is sliding under authoritarian dictatorship.
I was going to vote President Biden because I thought he had worked hard on the behalf of the majority of citizens. I think he was an effect and brilliant president with an enviable track record.
Unfortunately the media chose to highlight lies and fantasies while ignoring his accomplishment. Biden remained an engaged an effective president negotiating for the release of American hostages. #goodJoe
Additionally the too many people couldn’t tell gold from painted styrofoam.
Until Biden wasn’t running he’s had my vote.
Many Democrats are ingrates and no better than the billionaire owned media.
It’s only fair that George Clooney now write a New York Times editorial criticizing drumpf. Then he and his beautiful wife can be banned (or deported) from the U.S. together. I dare you, George.