The French government has defended its decision to grant citizenship to U.S. citizen George Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney, a British and Lebanese citizen, following President Donald Trump’s criticism of the pair and a French official’s accusation that the two received preferential treatment.

The Clooneys recently locked in their French citizenship, the couple announced in late December. The decision to award the Clooneys citizenship outside of normal immigration practices upset Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a junior minister at the French Interior Ministry.

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