Trump Expands Sanctions Against International Criminal Court

The Trump administration imposed additional sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for attempting to prosecute American officials, as well as those of allied countries, especially Israel.

In a statement, the State Department said:

Today, the United States is sanctioning four individuals, currently serving on the International Criminal Court (ICC).  The Department of State’s designations are made pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14203, which authorizes sanctions on foreign persons engaged in certain malign efforts by the ICC and aims to impose tangible and significant consequences on those directly engaged in the ICC’s transgressions against the United States and Israel.

The Department is designating the following individuals pursuant to section 1(a)(ii)(A) of E.O. 14203, for having directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute a protected person without consent of that person’s country of nationality:

• KIMBERLY PROST, Judge, Trial Division, International Criminal Court
• NICOLAS YANN GUILLOU, Judge, Trial Division, International Criminal Court
• NAZHAT SHAMEEM KHAN, Deputy Prosecutor, International Criminal Court
• MAME MANDIAYE NIANG, Deputy Prosecutor, International Criminal Court

Prost is being designated for ruling to authorize the ICC’s investigation into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.  Guillou is being designated for ruling to authorize the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

Deputy Prosecutors Shameem Khan and Niang are being designated for continuing to support illegitimate ICC actions against Israel, including upholding the ICC’s arrest warrants targeting Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant since they assumed leadership for the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor.

The sanctions block the property of the named individuals and prevent them from visiting or doing business in the U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the sanctions (via Government Press Office, translated from Hebrew):

“I congratulate US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for deciding to impose sanctions on the judges of the International Court in The Hague.

This is a firm measure against the mendacious smear campaign against the State of Israel and the IDF, and for truth and justice.”

As Breitbart News reported in June, Rubio sanctioned four ICC judges for attempting to exert jurisdiction over the U.S. and Israel, though neither are signatories to the Rome Statute under which countries accept the authority of the institution.

President Donald Trump had sanctioned the ICC during his first term, when it attempted to prosecute Americans. President Joe Biden reversed those sanctions, though he claimed at the time that the U.S. still opposed ICC jurisdiction over non-signatories.

Ultimately, the Biden administration could not stop — and, critics claimed, may have actively encouraged — the ICC in its pursuit of senior Israeli officials, which the Netanyahu government condemned as antisemitic.