Legal scholar makes the case to indict Trump for war crimes

President Donald Trump with members of the military at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, March 7, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump must be indicted for war crimes, one legal scholar argued for The Hill, and while there are various legal grounds on which this could be done, one particular "atrocity" stands above them all.

Bennett L. Gershman is a veteran law professor at Pace University, who also previously worked as a prosecutor for the New York State Anti-Corruption Office. On Monday afternoon, he published a new op-ed for The Hill, expressing how "surreal" it felt to see Trump threaten to "annihilate" Iran during his recent United Nations address, not long after the organization's Human Rights Council "issued a report finding 'reasonable grounds to believe' that the U.S. had committed war crimes on Feb. 28, 2026, the day Trump launched his war on Iran by bombing a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab," a strike that killed 157 people.

"Trump’s performance at the U.N. featured his disdain for the principles of the United Nations, his mockery of the preeminence of international law, and his scorn for the values of human dignity and justice," Gershman wrote. "To Trump, it seems, coercion overrides cooperation, and force determines who lives and who dies. He boasted that 'I have used strength to make America the most powerful country in the world,' and that 'to the victor belong the spoils.'

While the "horrific bombing" of the girls' school in Iran was the primary reason Gershman put forward to justify indicting Trump, it was far from the only one mentioned.

"Trump should be indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including his administration’s actions in killing multiple people in boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific waters, claiming, without evidence, that they were smuggling drugs, as well as his invasion of Venezuela, which involved killing scores of civilians in the course of arresting leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife," Gershman argued.

Gershman conceded that public awareness of the strike might not be strong, given the fact that "news reports and official post-mortems of war tragedies often elude scrutiny, especially the details of airstrikes, targets, identification of munitions, casualties and attribution." The U.N. report, he explained, included numerous harrowing details, including "Pre-strike photographs [depicting] classrooms furnished with educational materials, children’s artwork and learning aids" and "satellite imagery" showing children in a courtyard. It also includes heartbreaking and graphic details from the immediate aftermath of the strike, which the report determined "was the intended point of impact," and not the result of "an errant strike or collateral damage."

"The International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, has issued indictments and arrest warrants for 74 individuals during its tenure, including Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes and crimes against humanity," Gershman concluded. "Trump and members of his administration should be concerned that they also may be indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity."

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