A spokesman for Faiq Zidan says the visit has been pushed back because of the war in Israel.
ONE OF A KIND— The chief judge of Iraq, Faiq Zidan, wants to arrest former President Donald Trump. His spokesperson told Fox News Digital that he has been called to Washington, D.C. This is true. Fox News Digital was the first to report that Zidan had been called to Washington.
When it came out that the controversial judge was going to meet with people at the Department of Justice, there was a lot of confusion about his trip. Last week, a spokesperson for the State Department told Fox News Digital, “The Department of Justice will host President Faiq Zidan of the Supreme Judicial Council, so we will let them talk about their meetings.” We work with a lot of different groups in Iraq, and we really value working with the Iraqi courts. The DOJ regularly meets with heads of foreign courts.
There was a difference between what the State Department spokeswoman said and what a source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital last Thursday: “Zidan will not be meeting with any DOJ officials.”
On Monday, Zidan’s spokesman sent Fox News Digital a text message on the messaging app WhatsApp saying, “His trip to Washington was pushed back because of the war.” When he comes to Washington, he will meet with you to explain many things that the American people don’t understand.
Before its first story about Zidan’s planned visit came out, Fox News Digital called a spokesperson for him. She wouldn’t say anything on the phone or through WhatsApp. After Fox News Digital sent the Iraqi spokeswoman a copy of the story that had already been published, she said that Zidan couldn’t go to Washington because of the war in Israel.
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A person who knows about Zidan’s call to the DOJ says that the judge told many U.S. officials that the DOJ had asked him to come to Washington, D.C.
Zidan said in January that Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council had issued an arrest warrant for Trump in connection with the U.S. killing of Iranian Qassem Soleimani, who was in charge of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and was said to have been responsible for the deaths of over 600 American soldiers in the Middle East.
An article on the website of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who is under U.S. sanctions, says that the Iraqi judge told Raisi earlier this year, “The trial of all those who participated in the terrorist crime of martyring the commanders of fighting against terrorism is one of the most important examples of judicial cooperation between the two neighbouring and brotherly countries.”
Zidan is said to have said what he did during a conversation about seeking “justice for the martyrs Soleimani and al-Muhandis.”
In 2020, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was in charge of the Kata’ib Hezbollah group, which stands with Iran. A deadly drone hit near Baghdad International Airport by the U.S. military killed Soleimani and al-Muhandis.
Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser for the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, “The Justice Department should be protecting Americans who are the target of IRGC plots to kill or kidnap them, not hosting the IRGC’s man in Baghdad who wants to bring charges against Americans who killed terrorists.” Zidan shouldn’t be able to come to America.
The Washington Institute’s Michael Knights has written about Zidan and told Fox News Digital that “Zidan issued one order after another that has disadvantaged opponents of Iranian militias.”
Knights said that Soleimani and al-Muhandis “planned his rise through the legal system” after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He ran courts to stop terrorism so that none of Iran’s friends were charged with crimes under Iraqi law.
Knights pointed out that Iraq’s courts don’t follow modern rules. He said Zidan “is a supreme court judge who can hire and fire other judges.” Iraq only has one judge on its highest court. He has as much power as Iraq’s prime minister. He wasn’t chosen; Iran put him in control, and he can serve forever.
