Trump Admin Announces Sanctions Against International Criminal Court Chief

By Derek Vanbuskirk

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against International Criminal Court (ICC) President Tomoko Akane and its senior trial lawyer, Abdoulaye Seye, on Tuesday.

Rubio said the Trump administration’s sanctions on the ICC leaders were part of its “unwavering mission to protect Americans from this sham of a court.” (RELATED: Trump Admin Scraps Corporate Ownership Rule, Making It Harder To Track Dirty Money)

In a mid-July op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Rubio said the administration was “dismantling” the ICC because it had overstepped its jurisdiction by claiming the authority to bring U.S. officials and law enforcement personnel from across the globe before non-American judges to be tried under international laws to which the U.S. had not consented.

At the close of 2000, President Bill Clinton refused to recommend the ICC’s founding treaty to the U.S. Senate, citing “significant flaws” that would have needed to be addressed.

“In particular, we are concerned that when the Court comes into existence, it will not only exercise authority over personnel of states that have ratified the Treaty, but also claim jurisdiction over personnel of states that have not,” Clinton said at the time.

Rubio echoed that sentiment in July, saying the ICC and its allies now seek “a standing world tribunal with near-unlimited reach, empowered to override the courts and constitutions of the U.S. and other sovereign states—and to prosecute and arrest our citizens.”

As an example, Rubio pointed to a 2020 ICC investigation into what was described as “war crimes by members of the United States armed forces” in Afghanistan and claimed the U.S. had not done a satisfactory job prosecuting its own soldiers.

Last month, I launched a diplomatic campaign to dismantle the ICC’s threat to our national sovereignty. The Trump Administration is sanctioning ICC President Tomoko Akane and Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye in our unwavering mission to protect Americans from this sham of a…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 18, 2026

Rubio argued that calls from hostile third-world governments to try and imprison Americans had only continued.

In 2025, the ICC urged officials to take action against the Trump administration for deporting prisoners to El Salvador and for framing Trump’s strikes on narcoterrorists’ boats carrying drugs toward the U.S. as a “crime against humanity.”

Rubio then announced that the administration would launch a diplomatic campaign prioritizing “sovereign states over globalism,” while committing to use “all the tools at our government’s disposal” to dismantle the ICC.

Citing the Declaration of Independence on Tuesday, Rubio promised that “Americans will never be transported beyond seas to be tried for pretend offenses.”

President Donald Trump may also be trying to protect ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also the subject of an ICC arrest warrant in 2024. (RELATED: Israel Claimed Iran Was Targeting Trump, But The CIA Isn’t Buying It)

Netanyahu’s charges include war crimes for the alleged use of starvation as a method of warfare and for allegedly directing an attack against the civilian population, after Hamas terrorists killed, kidnapped and attacked thousands of people, including Israeli nationals and dozens of Americans, on Oct. 7, 2023.