Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.

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Last March, when horrifying images of civilian deaths surfaced from Bucha, Ukraine, President JOE BIDEN called for a war crimes trial against Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN.

Biden didn’t specify the court he’d want to take on this task, but Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN backed the president’s assessment and said U.S. experts were gathering evidence to document Russian attacks.

A year later, the Pentagon is blocking the Biden administration from sharing evidence about Russia’s brutalities with the International Criminal Court, the New York Times’ CHARLIE SAVAGE reported this week. American intelligence agencies and both the State and Justice Departments want to provide the evidence to the court. But Biden hasn’t resolved the dispute.

West Wing Playbook called LUIS MORENO OCAMPO, who served as the ICC’s first prosecutor from 2003 to 2012, to talk about this impasse. This conversation has been edited for space.

When I asked to talk, you sent me an interesting email saying that the ICC prosecutor doesn’t need U.S. evidence. Why?

President Putin should be indicted. He is a criminal. ICC could do it, easily. ICC prosecutor KARIM KHAN does not need more evidence because there is a very clear case. It’s obvious to prove the invasion of Ukraine produced the displacement of people in territory occupied by the Russian Army. And that in itself is a crime against humanity.

Plus, getting evidence from the U.S. will complicate the prosecutor’s life.

Why is that?

It’s the ICC rules. The prosecutor has to disclose any information that could be material for defense. So, for example, if the intelligence provided said, “Look, they targeted the hospital and Putin was involved in it, but they did it because they were thinking there was a group of militias there killing people,” the prosecutor should disclose that intelligence to the defense. And therefore, the DOD will say no. Disclosing intelligence to the defense will disclose sources.

So you think Biden should side with the DOD?

I think Biden should, because any good lawyer in the U.S. will know, as soon as you provide information, you are in the hands of the prosecutor to disclose or not disclose, and you cannot accept that.

U.S., FBI, CIA intelligence is not something the U.S. likes to share with any prosecutor. And I understand because when you expose intelligence, you expose sources. You have to protect your sources. For me, it’s clear the only solution [for Biden] is to say, “thank you, no.”

If it’s so clear cut, why hasn’t the ICC prosecutor moved to indict Putin?

The ICC prosecutor is an independent, international decision-maker. He can decide to move ahead alone or to harmonize his decision with the political actors. In the Darfur case, I received a lot of messages not to indict President OMAR AL-BASHIR. It was a difficult call, but I moved ahead and states followed.

In Ukraine, the ICC prosecutor received strong support to open an investigation — 43 states referred the situation to the ICC. But, in my reading between lines, states are not giving a green light to indict Putin.

The ICC prosecutor is the only one who can request an arrest warrant against Putin next week. The issue is not the DOD’s information. The ICC prosecutor does not need more evidence. He needs a request by nations to go ahead with any clear cases against Putin to integrate judicial and political decisions.

So why is it that we haven’t heard that direct request from Biden and other Western leaders?

Because they don’t control the judicial process, and they are afraid of something they don’t control. But that’s a mistake. Some states, like the U.S. — that don’t like to go through the ICC — they don’t like the idea of conferring the principle that there is no immunity for invading a country. Because that would give ammunition to any country the U.S. invaded in the future.

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This one’s from Allie. What president’s son died in a train crash while traveling with the president and his wife shortly before his inauguration?

(Answer at the bottom.)

It’s Friday, and you know what that means — cartoon time. This one is by RICK MCKEE. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a selection of cartoons from all over the country.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This tweet from Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) sharing the House Freedom Caucus’ conditions for raising the debt ceiling. It calls for major cuts to discretionary spending and massive rollbacks of the president’s Inflation Reduction Act. “We need real change in DC and it must be secured as part of our debt-ceiling negotiations,” Scott tweeted.

Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES emailed the post to reporters with the subject line: “Please RT :)” … So, yeah, they really want you to read it.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece from the New York Times’ JIM TANKERSLEY about how Biden’s budget once again does not include a proposal to shore up Social Security, falling short of his campaign promise to address the issue well before the program exhausts it reserves.

“Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign plan appears to be a casualty of messaging and policy considerations, including an unwillingness by administration officials to muddle what they see as a winning argument that casts the president as the protector of a cherished program and congressional Republicans as its foil,” Tankersley writes.

FLYING SOLO: Biden hosted European Commission President URSULA VON DER LEYEN at the White House on Friday amid tension between the U.S. and EU over electric vehicle tax credits. As West Wing Playbook wrote about last week, there was once again no joint press conference afterward. But von der Leyen was gracious enough to head to the West Wing driveway by herself in the chilly rain to talk to reporters about the meeting. She said that the two leaders had agreed to start a dialogue on the question of raw minerals used to produce electric vehicle batteries.

NOT A GREAT START TO THE DAY: The Eisenhower Executive Office Building was evacuated early Friday morning after D.C. Fire and EMS Department responded to a call about a fire. Apparently, it was started by a defective cooling motor in the basement. No one was injured, the AP reported.

CNN ABSOLUTELY OWNING THE DEPARTING STAFFER BEAT: White House assistant press secretary KEVIN MUNOZ will leave his position later this month, CNN’s BETSY KLEIN reports. The piece is full of quotes from current and former administration officials singing Munoz’s praise, including one from ANTHONY FAUCI, who called Munoz a “very, very nice guy.”

TAKE THAT, CNN: First in West Wing Playbook, JORDAN FINKELSTEIN has joined the commissioned officer class at the White House and been promoted to be a special assistant to the president, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He continues in his role as chief of staff to senior adviser ANITA DUNN.

MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: MIKE BURNS has joined the research and data analytics consultancy Mathematica as senior director of communications and public affairs, Lippman has also learned. He most recently was deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at HUD.

— PHILIP KIM has joined the White House as a senior adviser at the Office of Public Engagement. He most recently was White House liaison at AmeriCorps. BEATRIX EVANS has replaced Kim at AmeriCorps. She most recently was a special adviser to the White House liaison at the HHS.

GIVE US THE DEETS: The House on Friday sent Biden legislation that would require the administration to declassify all information held by U.S. agencies relating to potential links between Covid-19 and China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, our CARMEN PAUN reports. It’s not clear yet whether Biden will sign the bill. If he doesn’t, it would be his first veto as president.

“We’re taking a look at the bill,” White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said at Friday’s briefing. “We will continue to use every tool to figure out what happened here while also protecting classified information.”

MANCHIN, AT IT AGAIN: In an opinion piece Friday for the Houston Chronicle, Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) said he would not advance the nomination of Biden’s pick to lead Interior’s land and minerals management office, LAURA DANIEL-DAVIS. Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, cited an internal Interior Department memo that Daniel-Davis signed off on that would not lower the federal fees companies have to pay to extract oil and gas due to climate concerns.

Daniel-Davis is the second Biden nominee that Manchin has derailed this week. GIGI SOHN withdrew her Federal Communications Commission nomination on Monday after Manchin announced he opposed her nomination.

How Biden Learned to Love the Debt-Ceiling Crisis (New York’s Eric Levitz)

15 budget asks that are actually Biden’s reelection pitch (Politico’s Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma)

Falling Survey-Response Rates Undermine Economic Data (WSJ’s Josh Zumbrun)

On a chilly winter day in January 1853, FRANKLIN PIERCE, his wife and 11-year-old son, Benny, were traveling from Andover, Mass., back home to Concord, N.H. Not long after the train started moving, one of its axles suddenly fractured. Pierce’s car fell off the tracks and down a 20-foot embankment. The New York Times said the train car “broke in pieces like a cigar box.”

A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.