LAW OFFICES OF

J . W HITFIELD L ARRABEE
TRIAL AND APPELLATE LAWYERS
251 HARVARD STREET, SUITE 9
BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS 02445

TELEPHONE: (857) 991-9894

WWW.LARRABEELAW.COM
JW.LARRABEE@VERIZON.NET

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: J. Whitfield Larrabee

February 20, 2018 857-991-9894 | jw.larrabee@verizon.net

A Complaint Filed Today with the International Criminal Court Charges Donald Trump and
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt with Committing Crimes Against Humanity by Making Climate
Change More Severe.

Massachusetts – A lawyer from the United States and a political group, the Resistance
Committee Action Fund, filed a complaint on Monday with the International Criminal Court
charging President Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the US Environmental
Protection Agency, with crimes against humanity.

Click here to view the complaint

The complaint, filed with the Court in The Hague, accuses Trump and Pruitt of “causing global
environmental destruction by issuing orders, enacting policies, and advancing regulations that
are resulting in enormous fossil fuel emissions.” It alleges that, “[h]undreds of millions of
people will be killed or displaced this century as a result of Trump’s energy policies, which are
needlessly adding to greenhouse gas emissions and are making climate change more severe.”

The complaint lists multiple actions taken by Trump and Pruitt to reverse limits on fossil fuel
emissions that were put in place by Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama
administration. The complaint particularly highlights Trump’s June announcement that he will
not implement the Paris Climate Agreement and that he intends to withdraw the United
States, alone in the world, from the agreement.

In the filing, attorney J. Whitfield Larrabee accuses Trump and Pruitt of “creating an
environmental time bomb that is designed to kill people throughout the Earth in huge
numbers...Like arsonists pouring gasoline onto a raging fire, [Trump and Pruitt] are
participating in killing millions of people by accelerating climate change with unnecessary fossil
fuel emissions.” Larrabee warns that sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, mass extinction and
other effects of global warming are “leading civilization to ecological, economic and social
collapse.”

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Larrabee charges Trump and Pruitt with “engaging in course of criminal conduct that is killing
and will kill millions of children.” In support of this claim, Larrabee refers to a statement by the
World Health Organization predicting that climate change will cause an additional 250,000
deaths per year from malaria, diarrhea, heat stress and under-nutrition between 2030 and
2050. He also references other studies showing that the majority of deaths from malaria and
diarrhea occur in children from undeveloped countries.

Larrabee accuses Trump and Pruitt of “maliciously causing global environmental destruction for
their own political gain in concert with other members of The Republican Party and individuals
in the fossil fuel industry.” Referencing a New York Times report, Larrabee states: “On March
1, 2017, Robert Murray, the owner of the largest coal mining company in the United States,
presented an ‘Action Plan’ for the Trump administration to Vice President Mike Pence with 16
detailed requests for rolling back environmental protections affecting coal mining. Shortly
thereafter, Murray met with Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to discuss implementing the plan.
Most of the requests in the Action Plan, that are designed to cause unnecessary and damaging
greenhouse gas emissions, have been carried out by [Trump and Pruitt] or are on track to being
carried out.”

Larrabee accuses Trump and Pruitt of committing three crimes against humanity set forth in
the Rome Statute - the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court. These crimes are
extermination, deportation or forcible transfer of population, and other inhumane acts of a
similar character causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical
health.

In support of his claim that Trump and Pruitt are guilty of forcible transfer of population,
Larrabee highlights scientific reports showing that hundreds of millions of people in low lying
countries, such as Bangladesh, will be forcibly displaced from their homes with as little as 1
meter of sea level rise. Larrabee cites a recent study, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, concluding that 1 to 2 meters of sea level rise may occur this century under
“business-as-usual” emissions.

Although the United States is not a State Party to the Rome Statute, Larrabee argues in the
complaint that the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over Trump and Pruitt because
“their attacks occurred in the territories of State Parties and the effects of the attacks occurred
in territories of State Parties.” In support of his claim that the Court has jurisdiction over
Trump and Pruitt, Larrabee cites a case recently decided by the ICC in which it found that it had
jurisdiction over U.S. citizens accused of committing war crimes in Afghanistan.

Larrabee stated, “I filed this complaint against Trump and Pruitt because I want to bring
attention to the many millions of children and the other victims of their crimes. By
accelerating climate change, Trump and Pruitt are participating in crimes that will kill far more
people than were killed in Nazi concentration camps in World War II. In addition to killing
many people, their crimes will cause hundreds of millions of people to suffer from disease,
starvation, heat stress and forcible displacement as global temperatures increase, droughts
grow more severe and sea level rises.”

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Larrabee stated: “We ask concerned citizens from around the world to ask their governments
to report these crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court. If a government
that is a State Party to the Rome Statute were to make a referral, it would help our effort to
hold Trump and Pruitt criminally responsible. While our complaint may be the first, we hope it
will not be the last.”

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