The DOJ was reportedly set to host an Iranian-backed Iraqi judge who had previously issued a warrant for former President Trump’s arrest before backtracking concerning the meeting.

The confab was reportedly set to take place this month. The warrant was issued against Trump because he ordered the assassination of global terrorist Iranian Qassem Soleimani who was responsible for the killing of over 600 American military personnel.

Fox News Digital reported that a source with first-hand knowledge of pro-Iran regime jurist Faiq Zidan’s travel itinerary claims he was scheduled for a sit-down with the Biden Justice Department.

After Fox News Digital communicated with the DOJ, the agency mysteriously decided to withdraw its invitation to Zidan.

As if the #Biden Administration wasn’t helping Iran and its agents enough already, the US Department of Justice invited a big one – Iranian tool and Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan – to Washington. This is what DOJ does when not persecuting pro-life advocates.

— Alberto Miguel Fernandez (@AlbertoMiguelF5) October 9, 2023

“Zidan will not be meeting with any DOJ officials,” a source told Fox News on Thursday.

“The Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan is going to be hosted by the Department of Justice so we defer to the DoJ to discuss their meetings. We engage with a wide range of counterparts in Iraq and we value engaging the Iraqi judiciary. The DOJ meets regularly with foreign judicial leaders,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

The fact that the judge was meeting with the DOJ was evidently well-known.

“According to a separate source familiar with Zidan’s invitation to the DOJ, the judge told many U.S. officials the DOJ invited him to Washington, D.C. The appearance of working at cross-purposes between the State Department and DOJ suggests there may have been tension over the invitation to Zidan due to his pro-Iranian regime rhetoric and conduct,” Fox News reported.

Zidan had previously announced a warrant for Trump’s arrest was filed by Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council in January 2021 due to Soleimani’s death. He was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the pro-Iran Kata’ib Hezbollah militia in 2020, was also killed.

Faiq Zidan, President of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council
in a speech on the memorial for the killing of terrorists Qasem Soleimani & Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis providing damming evidence to be persecuted & sanctioned by the US, admitting that Al Muhandis (a terrorist leading armed… pic.twitter.com/V69KUpFbEi

— Entifadh Qanbar انتفاض قنبر (@eqanbar) March 30, 2023

Congressional leaders issued a letter to President Biden in September of this year conveying their concern over Zidan and Iraq’s treatment of Kurds. The letter was signed by congressional representatives Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul (R-Texas), and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.)

“Have the State or Treasury Departments determined whether Faiq Zaydan, the President of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, meets the criteria for sanctions for gross human rights, acting as a foreign agent, corruption, and material support as defined by the Global Magnitsky Act and E.O. 13818?” Waltz asked Biden in February.

Before the meeting with the Iraqi judge was nixed, experts on Iraq gave their opinion on the planned DOJ meeting.

“The Justice Department should be focused on protecting Americans targeted by IRGC assassinations and kidnapping plots, not hosting the IRGC’s man in Baghdad who wants to prosecute Americans for killing terrorists. Zidan should not be allowed in America,” Richard Goldberg, who is a senior adviser for the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Michael Knights, a fellow of the Washington Institute who has written about Zidan, told Fox News Digital as well that “Zidan issued one order after another that has disadvantaged opponents of Iranian militias.”

Mystery shrouds US visit of Iran-backed Iraqi judge who issued warrant for Trump’s arrest

Guess Biden will have Trump extradited to Iraq so they can give him to Iran

It’s the only way Biden beats him

— AppSame (@AppSame) October 9, 2023

“Knights said that after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Soleimani and al-Muhandis ‘were the architects of moving Zidan up through the judicial system. He was running counter-terrorism courts so that none of Iran’s friends got prosecuted under Iraqi law,'” Fox News recounted.

He also noted the lack of modern judicial norms in Iraq and said that Zidan “is a supreme court judge who can hire and fire other judges. Iraq has one Supreme Court judge. He is as powerful as the prime minister of Iraq. He is unelected, installed by Iran, and has no term limit.”

“Knights pointed to an example of Zidan’s alleged human rights violations involving the case of an American citizen who was detained last year in Iraq because he was investigating Zidan’s reported misconduct. He said that ‘Zidan broke numerous Iraqi laws by detaining the U.S. citizen’ who was tortured physically and mentally. The American was incarcerated for 11 weeks before Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell helped secure their release,” Fox News continued.

So basically this a warrant from the Iranian Government since Iran pretty much runs Iraq now. Trump would probably put the warrant on his wall as a badge of honor

— Ed Longerdale (@KRadalasko) January 8, 2023

He further commented that the U.S. government should “absolutely” sanction Zidan for human rights abuses. And added, “What it [DOJ] should not be doing is inviting him to the country to congratulate him on the great job he is doing.”

Knights said that a meeting with the DOJ would only empower Zidan and his pro-Iran regime activities in Iraq.

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.