Overview
- The Justice Department declared in a letter dated June 29 that it rejects any assertion of ICC jurisdiction over U.S. persons and published that position on July 2.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the United States will not cooperate with ICC investigations or transfer or extradite Americans to The Hague and will oppose other countries’ attempts to do so.
- The DOJ grounded its stance in the fact that the United States never ratified the Rome Statute and pointed to the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002 as domestic law barring most U.S. cooperation with the court.
- Blanche accused the ICC of selective enforcement and cited credible allegations of internal misconduct to call the court ‘‘lawless and illegitimate,’’ while the Trump administration’s sanctions on ICC officials have prompted three sanctioned judges to sue in Manhattan federal court.
- The move reinforces a pattern of U.S. policy shifts on the ICC, deepens diplomatic friction with court supporters, and is likely to shape whether allies comply with Hague requests and how ongoing probes such as those linked to Israel and Afghanistan proceed.