Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is wrong to obstruct a British criminal investigation involving the spouse of a United States diplomat. Pompeo should reverse course and waive said spouse’s diplomatic immunity. Failing to do so, the Trump administration will suggest to the British people that America neither respects their laws nor their lives.
The facts are clearly in favor of waiving diplomatic protections.
On Aug. 27, 19-year-old Harry Dunn was hit and killed by a car as he drove his motorcycle outside of a U.S.-utilized Royal Air Force base at Croughton. That base serves as a U.S. military communications and U.S. intelligence conduit. Investigating Dunn’s death, the local police chief told the BBC that “based on CCTV evidence,” a vehicle left the base “on the wrong side of the road.” The BBC reports that the primary suspect in the crash, “left the U.K. despite telling police she had no such plans.”
The individual is married to a U.S. diplomat assigned to Croughton.
Allowing the suspect to leave the U.K. under diplomatic immunity was a terrible decision by Pompeo, Ambassador Woody Johnson, and the State Department. The special relationship makes Americans safer, wealthier, and freer. Making necessary burden-sharing arguments on issues such as defense spending, the Trump administration must respect our allies.
Absent that respect, allied citizens find electoral reasons to oppose American interests. This is certainly true in Britain, where a deeply anti-American politician might become the next prime minister. That possibility would be disastrous for our interests.
It would be one thing if there were factors against waiving the suspect’s immunity. But there aren’t. Unlike in Pakistan, where a similar incident occurred in 2018, concerns over the American’s safety, right to a fair trial, and incident mitigation (stopping at traffic lights and risking an ambush) are not in play here. Nor would returning to Britain ruin the suspect’s life with risk of an undue sentence in the event of her conviction — U.K. sentencing guidelines governing death by dangerous driving are substantially less punitive than those of most American states. Moreover, the U.S. could win British commitments to ensure our citizen’s safety in prison.
The basic point is this: Britain is America’s closest ally. It has lost a citizen and deserves better than this arrogant disdain.
