Washington sanctions the court it cheered against Putin
The Trump administration sanctioned the International Criminal Court as an institution on Friday, hours after Navi Pillay, a former judge of the court who led the UN inquiry that found Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the ICC a "rogue court" and said Washington would ban transactions with it, "cutting off their resources and
crippling its ability to operate." The court, created by treaty and backed by 125 member states, said the move "follows a series of designations against thirteen independent Judges and prosecutors" and called it "an assault on the rule of law." Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told Reuters the sanctions "must be condemned." Friday's step is the latest in a long record. Washington has spent
two decades punishing courts, investigators and civil society groups whenever their work turns toward the United States or Israel, while cheering the same institutions when they pursue its rivals. The court Washington cheered against Putin In March 2023, when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden called it "justified." Twenty months later the
same court issued warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over the starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza. In February 2025 President Trump signed Executive Order 14203, which names those warrants as "baseless" and authorizes sanctions on anyone who assists the court. Prosecutor Karim Khan was designated a week later. The hostility