Can Mamdani arrest Netanyahu in NYC? Attorney weighs in

[0:00] could the mayor of new york city have prime minister benjamin netanyahu arrested he says [0:05] he's looking into it the israeli leader is expected to attend the u.n general assembly [0:09] in new york in september speaking on the new york times the interview podcast mayor mamdani [0:14] said he's having quote active conversations about what the law allows him to do you're actively [0:23] looking to see if you can actually arrest him i think we are looking at all of our legal obligations [0:28] and one of them is with regards to the united nations but the other part of this is we're not [0:33] talking about a personal assessment of benjamin netanyahu we're talking about the international [0:37] criminal court and the fact that they have a warrant out for this prime minister's arrest [0:42] with us now cnn's legal analyst joey jackson counselor what does the law actually say here [0:48] what does it allow mamdani to do so corporation council they advise the mayor they have got some [0:53] great attorneys over there but i think when they look at the law they will advise the mayor that [0:58] he does not have the legal ability to enforce this active warrant that was issued by the [1:04] international criminal court right we know this we have this court this court's been around for [1:08] about 24 years or so they certainly prosecute war crimes which is their legal right and obligation but [1:15] the new york city mayor has no authority and in fact it's illegal for him to do so who does have [1:21] authority so you have member states and you have non-member states right and these member states who are [1:27] actively involved uh they certainly have the authority to do so europe is involved they they [1:32] could certainly do it you've got uh countries in latin america and africa as well uh united kingdom [1:38] is a member state here the united states is not a member state that's the key yes it is and even [1:43] if the united states were a member state would it be up to a city jurisdiction or would it be more likely [1:48] a federal case so it would it would be federal but it would be a little bit more complicated so here's [1:54] the reality right there are multiple barriers that would prevent a local official from doing it the [2:00] first thing to your question is there's a something called the preemption doctrine what is that [2:05] that means that the federal government has these laws some of which preempt local law in this [2:10] particular uh circumstance the federal law would be controlling and as a result of that the federal law [2:16] says not only can you not do it john but it's illegal to enforce a mandate of the international [2:21] community international criminal court in addition to that you have something called diplomatic immunity [2:27] which is absolute and based upon the diplomatic immunity you certainly cannot touch netanyahu when [2:33] he came here so it would be illegal for the mayor to do that so that pretty much sums it up i mean you [2:38] know and so his legal advice is going to tell him a this is actually a non-issue b you can't do this [2:45] there's no scenario then roughly where new york city police go and take him into custody there is no [2:50] scenario and in fact john you could be prosecuted for doing that the law is very clear with respect [2:56] to immunity the law is very clear with regard to us not being a member state of the international [3:02] criminal court the law is very clear as it relates to not you know not being able to touch netanyahu when [3:10] he comes to new york okay for the mayor to question and have his very good legal counsel weigh in but i [3:15] think when they do so they will say mayor you don't have the ability to do it no matter what you may [3:20] personally believe with regard to the active warrant for mr netanyahu that's what lawyers and billable [3:25] hours are for doesn't mean that it will not be eventful if and when the prime minister comes here [3:29] in the fall that will no doubt be a big deal first what do we know about what is possible julia right [3:36] right so this does not appear on its face to be possible because according to international criminal [3:43] court proceedings you have to a country has had to agree to the rome statute uh to basically a you [3:50] know arrest uh someone within the u.s notoriously is not all that interested in participating in the [3:55] trump administration and the biden administration have um notoriously not great relationships with [4:00] the icc that being said though i do find these comments fascinating because we are seeing really a [4:07] decline in support of israel from americans across the board across the political board on the far [4:14] left or the left you have someone like zoran mamdani talking about arresting benjamin netanyahu [4:19] but this comes roughly a week after we saw vice president jd vance go on joe rogan's podcast and [4:25] essentially accuse israel of manipulating u.s public opinion we were talking about that and i think the [4:31] thing for me that's confusing though is these other people don't have this like very large jewish [4:37] constituency that has been active activist and upset with the way he has talked about this issue [4:45] and i i believe it was a campaign promise but i looked at a website that had dozens of campaign [4:51] promises and most of them weren't fulfilled why would this be one that he would kind of talk about [4:57] publicly it's a strange political battle to pick especially because you think about a lot of the [5:01] jewish business leaders in new york who business leaders have threatened to leave the city but was that [5:06] like a gotcha moment like is there no way he could have said actually that's not something i would [5:10] do because he had promised it did he basically have to answer that way because it was the new york [5:14] times raising it oh so you're saying like was he put into a corner and he has to give his most [5:19] polarizing take yeah i mean that's kind of been his whole campaign shtick right like putting out [5:24] these incredibly um sort of polarizing positions a lot of people have questioned whether or not they're [5:30] even really possible right and then trying to utilize that to gain public support over one group within [5:35] new york the question becomes audi to your point new york has very different constituencies and can [5:41] you run a long-term um mayoral uh tenure while polarizing literally half the city like answer is [5:49] to be seen but i think that um there's no way to julia's point that this is something that is we should [5:55] be thinking about as uh more than a gimmick right at the end of the day he can't run for president [5:59] right so he's not thinking of like those big long-term ambitions but he is to me coming off [6:05] as somebody who is part of a movement and trying to be at the front of a movement that requires coming [6:11] up with sentences to say right as a democrat or somebody who is progressive um that will appeal to [6:19] this world of the newly polled that are frustrated right right you're right that he can't run for [6:24] president but he does have a he does have a constituency that is uh more than just new york [6:30] he does have a national political following that is very interested in what he does and very interested [6:35] in his influence and he's very interested in flexing that influence obviously we saw a lot of that [6:40] in the new york races who knows whether that expands in the future but this is part of this is an [6:45] issue that is so critical to the base of the democratic party so he's continuing even if it's not legal [6:51] to tap into that the leader of a key u.s ally in this war the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu [6:57] as you know congressman is scheduled to travel to new york city where you are for the united nations [7:02] general assembly in september but your city's democratic mayor zoran mamdani now says his office [7:08] is looking into the possibility of actually arresting him during that visit because the prime minister [7:14] is a quote war criminal that's what he says who belongs in the hague that's where the international [7:20] criminal court is based do you support or or oppose what mamdani is threatening to do yeah well look [7:29] the united nations is for all leaders to come to the united states for them to have a chance to talk [7:36] to the collective body whether you agree with them or not i have had on other sides with other folk to [7:44] say that they should have had the right to come to the u.n and they did to speak to the united nations [7:49] uh in that regards and people have the right to be to speak out loudly against what they may say and [7:55] represent that's fine but i think the mayor has also walked that back some i saw a quote where he [8:01] said that he does not intend to violate federal law existing law uh and looking for other laws as [8:07] president trump sometimes does you know tries to go around the law and that he understands that uh the [8:13] u.n's functions uh needs to continue to move forward and uh let the u.n takes care of its business uh and [8:20] so uh i i think that uh uh the mayor uh should make sure that uh he's not arresting anyone at that at this [8:26] point