THE HAGUE, Aug. 16 -- The International Criminal Court removed its chief prosecutor on July 25 under circumstances that, six days later, its own judges would describe as legally incoherent.

A yearlong investigation by the ICC's Office of Internal Oversight Services produced 137 findings related to Karim Khan. A panel of three senior judges, appointed by the Assembly of State Parties to evaluate those findings, concluded that none of them "establish misconduct or breach of duty." Khan was removed anyway, by a vote of the same member states whose sustained pressure had reportedly shaped the process from the start.

What happened to Khan is less a story about sexual misconduct, the allegation that triggered the investigation and on which th...