Rubio Imposes Sanctions on ICC Judges for Illegitimate Targeting of U.S., Israel

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that the U.S. would impose sanctions on four judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for targeting the U.S. and Israel, though neither are signatories.

In a statement, Rubio said (original emphasis):

Today, I am designating Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler of Slovenia pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” These individuals directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without consent from the United States or Israel.  Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute.

As ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel. The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies. This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel.

President Donald Trump had already restored sanctions on the ICC in February, after President Joe Biden had reversed Trump’s earlier sanctions. Trump had imposed sanctions on the ICC during his first term after the court began targeting U.S. military personnel over actions in Afghanistan, though the U.S. never signed the Rome Statute that governs the ICC, and never agreed to submit U.S. personnel to the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Biden lifted sanctions on the ICC, though stressed that the U.S. still rejected its jurisdiction. He then claimed to be outraged when the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, and there is evidence that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan rushed to file charges against Netanyahu in order to deflect scrutiny after Khan was accused of sexual misconduct.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.